More guts than brains

A while back I read that the physiological reactions of engrossed spectators at the sports stadium are the same as those of gorillas or chimps warding off threats from another tribe. People are very loyal to their favourite teams. There a very deep instinctive tribal response. Anything that can be given an identifying marker - team, nation, religion, political party, lifestyle brand, etc., can elicit the kind of loyalty that suppresses individual reasoning in the service of clan loyalty and group homogenization.

Advertising can work on those strong basic instincts to present "identities" that link people to consumer tribes of the marketers' making. They don't just stop at brand but can get into politics to support the kind of reactions and herd mind that ensure that people will elect governments more likely to have economic and tax policies that support corporations. For example, ads that stress freedom and independence through purchasing for "manly" men and promote a sort of non-intellectual or brute machismo are more likely to sway people rightward than leftward given that social support systems are not on the radar of lone cowboy individualists. Ironically, these memes have the effect of homogenizing and infantilizing perspectives, not of encouraging adult individual thought.

Bear this in mind when you see commercials. I've noted an alarming change in tone, especially in terms of the depiction of gender. We seem to be following a backward trend. Devolution.

Rousing nationalist passion or reviving historical gender stereotypes is inconsistent with looking forward to a future with a modern, sustainable functioning economy in a global marketplace. We need more tolerance, open-ended thinking, more comfort with ambiguity, more agility and more responsiveness. We need a more pluralistic and inclusive sense of humanity and respect for nature, more brains than guts or glory.

Belief Systems that Provide a False Sense of Control or Safety

 Some examples of stress-relieving beliefs with longterm tragic consequences:

• Dominionism - The idea that whatever we do to the planet is OK since our tribal god created it for cosmically special us
• Prometheanism - The falsely utopian idea that the model of understanding nature in mechanical terms that is used in reductionist science allows us to predict and control everything and order it to our ends
• Newageism - The idea that we can be in complete control of our destiny through right thinking and feeling.

What each of these has in common is that it answers the very understandable fear of natural contingencies and one way or another emphasizes the human capacity to control natural circumstances or ignore them without consequence. More importantly, each of these views sanctifies a sense of entitlement to manipulate things to our own ends, without actually specifying any worthwhile ends. That puts us on a cynical hamster wheel to nowhere.

Beliefs like these might have been useful in the past to sustain optimism and creative momentum. But we're now so ramped up that we've lost sight of the optimism, overlook the beyond-human natural, and fail to develop a healthy reverence for nature and the mystery of existence. We now in need of new guiding narratives rooted in a real and grounded relationship to the world.

The world is giving us a reality check.

Recommended Articles

 George Monbiot - Neoliberal Economics - the root of all our problems  - The Guardian

A superb summary of the problems that we are facing as a result of the economics of Reagan and Thatcher.

E Saez and G Zucman - The Triumph of Injustice - How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay

A graphic description of the effect of the reduction of corporate taxes on equality. Turns out that in the US, corporations contribute less than the working class.

Angela Nagle - The Lost Boys - The Atlantic

Describes the belief of adherents to the Alt Right that civilization is in decline and that feminism and egalitarianism are to blame.

Paul Thagard - Jordan Peterson's Murky Maps of Meaning - Psychology Today

Assesses Peterson's psychological theories in the light of actual research in the areas he covers and concludes that "Peterson's ideas are a mishmash of banal self-help, amateur philosophy, superfluous Christian mythology, evidence-free Jungian psychology, and toxic individualistic politics." 

Grant Maxwell - Why are so many young men drawn to Peterson's Intellectual Misogyny?

Maxwell offers a straightforward critique of Jordan Peterson as an champion of the status quo who appeals to the adolescent aspects of masculinity, likening his appeal to that of Trump. 

Stuart Kauffman - Reinventing The Sacred - Beyond Reductonism

This is a fascinating two hour lecture delivered by Stuart Kauffman explaining his ideas about science, the error of scientific reductionism (the belief that everything can be explained in terms of matter and the laws of physics), and the sacred.

Michael Hudson - The Vocabulary of Economic Deception

Michael Hudson is interviewed about his book, J is for Junk Economics. He says today's economists and financial institutions "...try to portray their product – in this case, neoliberal economics, dismantling protection of the environment, dismantling consumer protection and stopping of prosecution of financial fraud – as ‘wealth creation’ instead of impoverishment and austerity for the economy at large. So basically, my book reviews the economic vocabulary and language people use to perceive reality."

Ann Applebaum - The Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Ann Applebaum is interviewed about her book, The Twilight of Democracy, where she looks at the causes of the rise of the authoritarian right or "new right".

Why Conservative Economic Policy is the Root of our Economic Troubles

The core principles of conservative economic policy (aka neoliberalism):

1. Reduce taxes for the rich in the hope that they will invest and create jobs. WRONG: This policy has negative results in the age of automation, offshoring and financial tricks. Employees' wages cut into profits and the employers want to keep them low or non-existent. This only WIDENS the gap between rich and poor and reduces money available to the government to make needed infrastructure improvements, for education, healthcare, social support services, etc.

Neoliberal Economics in a Nutshell

Economically, we should all know by now that Neoliberal Economic Policy favoured by Republicans (and Conservatives) only ultimately siphons money up from the average tax payer to the very rich and leaves infrastructure dwindling away - except for Police and Military (who replaced "Social Programs") - and leaves the poor without anything.

That is why the income gap has been growing since the era of Reagan and Thatcher - and that is why a lot of things that you see now are happening

The Race to the Bottom?

Why on earth would anyone want to go back to the neocons? 

Do they want the kind of economic policy that shrinks the middle class even more and makes billionaires of CEOs.?!

Change takes time. 

The economic divide really took hold with the Reagan/Thatcher philosophy and since then we've been working in a siphon-up rather than trickle-down economy.

The extremely wealthy earn interest on our debts - that is their "work", their contribution. They do not reinvest in business ventures that employ people. They invest the tax cuts - promised them by the Conservative in return for political support - in machines that replace employees or in stock options to bump up the bonus cheques. They enjoy lives of influence and easy privilege while the hardworking person is scared to complain about wages for fear of losing his or her job, defaulting on mortgage or rent, or payments for that big shiny new RAM truck. 

Still, so many hardworking people vote Conservative and continue to support the kind of economics that breaks their backs while cutting their social services and other public benefits. Is it merely that they resent sharing social goods and they'd rather make themselves worse off to prevent sharing the wealth with others? Is it that they'd rather lash out at women or minorities than the real causes of their struggle, the wealth divide? Or is it they'd rather lash out at well intentioned middle class "intellectuals", calling them elitist? Let's hope not! That's the politics of resentment, the race to the bottom!

The Yin and Yang of Politics

Have you noticed that almost every pundit and politician on the rise today is channelling machismo as some sort of answer to a huge problem, namely  _________________ ?

The interconnected Memes of this Machismo (Yang) Politics are

1. Lone Cowboy Individualism 
2. Military style Tribalism and Nationalism (zero sum competition)
3. Domination of Nature
4. A rugged outdoorsy manhood (rather than a cultured intellectualism)
5. The sense of being entitled not to have to edit one's own pronouncements or check one's own behaviours, or to receive more than to give care, regardless of effects on the wellbeing of others.

If you're Jordan Peterson or a supporter of his, the huge problem is Political Correctness and its extreme danger to freedom of speech. Any emphasis on equity evokes his fear that we are in a slide toward post-modern Marxist Maoist Totalitarianism. And he will threaten to sue you for using your freedom of speech to criticize him.

If you're a person who's lost his or her job, you might think that the huge problem is immigration and globalism. Or maybe you think government regulations that are meant to protect the environment and citizens are limiting local investments in new industry and reducing job growth. But did you consider that we are in an era of great technological change and that the mandate of corporations is to increase production efficiencies (where labour is considered another expense cutting into profits)?   In fact, more production is going on in the US now than in the past - but much of it is automated. The technology has changed so the economic system must adapt or leave people behind.

Meanwhile, economists believe that Free Trade improves the economy. It has also been shown that diversity improves outcomes for innovation. And without immigration, the average age of the citizenry will increase to the point that there are nearly as many retirees as working people (paying the taxes that pay for the old age benefits).  

The huge problem is that the technology has changed but the economic system has not changed. We produce more than we need, much of it disposable or wasted. We pollute the environment with producing it. Those that have jobs, many are what we know to be "bullsh*t" jobs that would not be necessary if large companies and governments were not piled high in unnecessary bureaucratic processes. All but a few jobs can be automated and will be in the future. What happens to wage labour and the relevance of "work ethic" then? 

And what of Yin politics?

The Memes of Feminine (Yin) Politics

1. Interconnectedness (individual human potential cannot be realized apart from society, culture, economics and technology)
2. Pluralism and Diversity (not a zero sum but a win-win)
3. Environmentalism, Sustainable Development
4. Resilience and the importance of ongoing learning

To be honest, I don't know if I'd really call the above Yin or feminine or feminist. The reason I did so is because they seem to be the memes disparaged or neglected by the resurgent patriarchy. 

I take it to be pretty self-evident that no one's potential can be realized apart from society, culture, economics and technology. Even so, neuro-palaeontology confirms it. We are immersed, regardless of whatever political system we live in.

Given the fact that we live in an ineluctably global economic system, we need to be more tolerant of diversity. Not so tolerant that we tolerate a lack of tolerance or abuse, though. 

We cannot continue to carry on producing in excess of what we need or that nature can give or absorb.

Exploratory curiosity and learning is what makes us human, gives us meaning and helps us to adapt. We are not adapting by insisting on a set idea of "human nature". Our flourishing and resilience, our strengths, lie in our creative responsiveness and adaptability. We change. Culture changes. Narrative that doesn't change becomes decrepit and toxic.