It certainly hasn't helped that in the U.S. we get trained very early to be good little 'consumers' vs. good citizens. We start learning quite early that 'the key to happiness is having stuff,' vs. really looking at our intrinsic value, and that of others. We've venerated competition, and look upon cooperation and sharing as nostrums to teach little kids, knowing that they'll outgrow their idealism and will quickly learn to get in the societal ring and stop worrying if they have to step on others in order to 'get ahead.' It's just the American way...
Wonderful piece, Juan. And JT's comment is spot on too. From my perspective we're self-destructing as a species mostly because hardly anyone understands how we actually function, and what really drives our bad behavior. Our nervous system evolved to keep us safe when we were prey animals, so we're hyper-vigilant about detecting danger...and the moment we feel threatened we might as well not even have a cerebral cortex, because it's offline, and our Reptilian Brain is running the show. The good news is: the fields of neuroscience, trauma research and treatment methods have made amazing progress in helping us get a handle on how we ACTUALLY function (emotionally, not nearly as 'rational' as we believe we are). The bad news is: so far, this information hasn't gotten injected into the 'bloodstream' of our culture; especially not in what passes for political & policy discourse. If anyone out there is interested in dialoguing further about this, my email address is: sandysdharma@yahoo.com
I recently heard an interview in which it was mentioned that Ronald Reagan blew a big opportunity, when he smugly & gleefully had the Solar Panels on the roof of the White House - installed at Jimmy Carter's behest...instead of supporting real research into solar and other alternative energy sources.
The person interviewed wondered if we'd be facing this kind of intense weather if Reagan had made that choice. I don't know if that's a realistic assessment - but Reagan's decision NOT to support alt energy surely has made our current situation much, much worse...
Dr. Cole, I think you might be onto something here. I too am often tempted to deride the intelligence of Republicans like so many of the comments here. But I also know that human beings are rarely as simple as we often assume. I think we rarely know why we do what we do, in the moment that we do it... even those who appear to hold consistently retrograde political positions; maybe especially those folks - do things that are influenced by unconscious conflicts.
I remember how, when GWB was trying to appear 'sincere' was usually when he stumbled the worst, and telegraphed that he didn't believe what he wanted us to believe he believed...
It certainly hasn't helped that in the U.S. we get trained very early to be good little 'consumers' vs. good citizens. We start learning quite early that 'the key to happiness is having stuff,' vs. really looking at our intrinsic value, and that of others. We've venerated competition, and look upon cooperation and sharing as nostrums to teach little kids, knowing that they'll outgrow their idealism and will quickly learn to get in the societal ring and stop worrying if they have to step on others in order to 'get ahead.' It's just the American way...
Wonderful piece, Juan. And JT's comment is spot on too. From my perspective we're self-destructing as a species mostly because hardly anyone understands how we actually function, and what really drives our bad behavior. Our nervous system evolved to keep us safe when we were prey animals, so we're hyper-vigilant about detecting danger...and the moment we feel threatened we might as well not even have a cerebral cortex, because it's offline, and our Reptilian Brain is running the show. The good news is: the fields of neuroscience, trauma research and treatment methods have made amazing progress in helping us get a handle on how we ACTUALLY function (emotionally, not nearly as 'rational' as we believe we are). The bad news is: so far, this information hasn't gotten injected into the 'bloodstream' of our culture; especially not in what passes for political & policy discourse. If anyone out there is interested in dialoguing further about this, my email address is: sandysdharma@yahoo.com
Meant to say: "...had the solar panels RIPPED OFF the White House roof."
I recently heard an interview in which it was mentioned that Ronald Reagan blew a big opportunity, when he smugly & gleefully had the Solar Panels on the roof of the White House - installed at Jimmy Carter's behest...instead of supporting real research into solar and other alternative energy sources.
The person interviewed wondered if we'd be facing this kind of intense weather if Reagan had made that choice. I don't know if that's a realistic assessment - but Reagan's decision NOT to support alt energy surely has made our current situation much, much worse...
Dr. Cole, I think you might be onto something here. I too am often tempted to deride the intelligence of Republicans like so many of the comments here. But I also know that human beings are rarely as simple as we often assume. I think we rarely know why we do what we do, in the moment that we do it... even those who appear to hold consistently retrograde political positions; maybe especially those folks - do things that are influenced by unconscious conflicts.
I remember how, when GWB was trying to appear 'sincere' was usually when he stumbled the worst, and telegraphed that he didn't believe what he wanted us to believe he believed...