Life Mystery I: If you Don't Push in, You Will Be Pushed Out

By Prof. Dr. Halimu Shauri

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Keep pushing because the world is about “push ins” and “push outs.””” If you analyse many happenings in the world, most are not determined by our own pushes but either ‘push ins” or “push outs’ by others.

Where we are responsible for our push-ins, we celebrate our wins and see ourselves as smart or intelligent. However, we forget that for any push in, there is a push out. That is to say, push ins and push outs are about social spaces and making of a social equilibrium. Life, therefore, is all about pushing in and being pushed out as you push another one out also in a continuum of push ins and push outs.

When we push in, it is because some social space has been created by pushing out someone or something. In essence, every push in is a replacement of that space by filling in new things, people, or energy. This, therefore, speaks loud of social space ownership.

Thus, where there is no push ins or push outs, it suggests a moment of equilibrium. However, this equilibrium is not permanent but fluid and can move to a new equilibrium. In theory, they talk of either a moving equilibrium or paradigm shift, but in reality, we talk about displacements and filling of social spaces as society undergoes change.

While this change is expected to be in tandem with life dynamics, any change signifies the presence of a past order, meaning their was ownership of that social space before the new order or equilibrium is established.

The question of ownership brings us closer to the workings of many life processes. For instance, the democratic space is a fill-in and fill out process in a successive moving equilibrium. What today may not be tomorrow.

The survival of political office bearers, for instance, is a thin thread in and thin thread out. Indeed, you will understand democracy well if a bee falls into your cup of honey. While the bee is the real maker of the honey, you will definitely probably push it out or even kill it because you are now in control of that space. We should, therefore, be in full control of the social spaces we occupy and control by factoring in the changing needs of the society we live in.

Prof. Dr. Halimu Shauri

DEAN & CONSULTANT SOCIOLOGIST

PWANI UNIVERSITY