This phrasing here really bothers me. Saying that this event was "efficient" makes it sound as though it was a good thing. This genocide was horrific. That's a much better word to describe it, than efficient. 

just reading the title of this article made me mentally scream out "NO! If anything they are becoming more and more polarized. Especially after witnessing this year's presidential election. 

"pattern-recognition machines": I'm pretty sure we can all think of times when we've heard our named called out somewhere, but really someone just said something that sounded similar to our names. Our brains are constantly on alert, trying to make sense of the world around us. We feel comfortable with things we know, and so we try to fit new experiences into what we already know. This works like schemas. 

I think part of the reason we only hear about what celebrities are doing is because we feel more connected to them than to people we have never heard of. Because we feel connected to them, publicists feel that we are more likely to respond to pleas for help from people we feel more connected to. 

I think the four things  a voter needs to know really boil down to just one: will this person represent ME, what I want and what I would do?

This makes perfect sense to me. As we age, different things take priority in our lives and it's good to realize this and adjust accordingly. 

"lateness is a commodity they could purchase".    This makes sense to me. If I am going to pay the same fine for being one minute late as I would if I were an hour late, why wouldn't I take my sweet time getting there if it's costing me the same either way.