To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Drowning in a fog of fear
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 07:49:49 -0700
I am appalled at voter ignorance (the majority still think there was a
direct link between Saddam and 9/11), mystified by seemingly clear-minded
writers (read today's top two NYT columns by Krugman and Brooks, both very
smart guys but who see the potential draft exactly opposite), and depressed
by the fecal ethics of this presidential campaign (hardball used to be
telling unpleasant facts; now it's telling outright lies).
What's to be learned from how we collectively react to lies and slurs by
the candidates for our highest office? Are we intellectually regressing? Is
it still all about who has the biggest guns of offense? Who can kill most
effectively and fastest? Will anything short of anarchy and revolution
clean out the DC Whorehouse? Most importantly, are we committing national
suicide, following the Roman paradigm?
Here is an article that may partially explain what the polls--which were so
wrong in 2000--are currently reporting:
"Since the president's meltdown in the first debate followed in quick
succession by Paul Bremer's confession, the CIA's no-al Qaeda/Saddam link
report, the Duelfer no-WMD-since '91 report, and the woeful September job
numbers I have been racking my brain trying to figure out why George W.
Bush is still standing.
"The answer arrived via my friend Ed Solomon, the brilliant writer and
filmmaker, who explained that the conundrum could be solved by looking at
the very organ I'd been racking.
"Ed introduced me to the work of Dr. Daniel Siegel, a Harvard-trained
psychiatrist and author of the forthcoming book Mindsight, which explores
the physiological workings of the brain.
"Turns out, when it comes to campaign 2004, it's the neuroscience, stupid!
"Or, as Dr. Siegel told me: "Voters are shrouded in a 'fog of fear' that is
impacting the way our brains respond to the two candidates."
"Thanks to the Bush campaign's unremitting fear-mongering, millions of
voters are reacting not with their linear and logical left brain but with
their lizard brain and their more emotional right brain.
"What's more, people in a fog of fear are more likely to respond to someone
whose primary means of communication is in the non-verbal realm, neither
logical nor language-based. (Sound like any presidential candidate you know?)
"And that's why Bush is still standing. It's not about left wing versus
right wing; it's about left brain versus right brain.
"Deep in the brain lies the amygdala, an almond-sized region that generates
fear. When this fear state is activated, the amygdala springs into action.
Before you are even consciously aware that you are afraid, your lizard
brain responds by clicking into survival mode. Fight, flight, or freeze.
"And, boy, have the Bushies been giving our collective amygdala a workout.
Especially Dick Cheney, who has proven himself an unmatched master of the
dark arts of fear mongering. For an object lesson in how to get those
lizard brains leaping look no further than the vice presidential debate.
"The biggest threat we face today," said Cheney in his very first answer
"is the possibility of terrorists smuggling a nuclear weapon or a
biological agent into one of our own cities and threatening the lives of
hundreds of thousands of Americans."
"Just in case we didn't get the point, he repeated the ominous assertion,
practically word for word, another two times throwing in the fact that he
was "absolutely convinced" that the threat "is very real." It was "be
afraid, be very afraid" to the third power.
"And when we are afraid, we are biologically programmed to pay less
attention to left-brain signals indeed, our logical mind actually shuts
itself down. Fear paralyzes our reasoning and literally makes it impossible
to think straight. Instead, we search for emotional, nonverbal cues from
others that will make us feel safe and secure.
"We don't want to hear about a four-point plan to win the peace, or a list
of damning statistics, or even a compelling, well-reasoned argument. We
want to get the feeling that everything is going to be all right.
"In this state, our brains care more about tone of voice than what is being
said. This is why Bush can verbally stumble and sputter and make little or
no sense and still leave voters feeling that he is the candidate best able
to protect them. Our brains are primed to receive the kinds of
communication he has to offer and discard the kinds John Kerry has to
offer, even if Kerry makes more "logical sense."
"The strutting, winking, pointing, and near-shouting that marked Bush's
town hall debate performance all sent the same subconscious message to our
fear-fogged brains: "I'm your daddy I've got your back!"
"At the deepest level," Dr. Siegel told me, "we react to fear as adults in
much the same way we did as infants. It's primal. Human babies have the
most dependent infancy of any species. Our survival depends on the
caregiver. We instinctively look to authority figures to comfort us and
keep us safe."
"As needy infants, this natural drive to be soothed and reassured is what
we looked for in our parents; as anxious adults in these exceptionally
unsettling times, it's what we are looking for in our leaders.
"Over the remaining three weeks of the campaign, as the anxiety level
reaches a fevered pitch and you can be certain the Bush campaign will do
everything in its power to make sure that happens the test facing voters
is no longer "Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?" It's
"Which candidate would you rather give you your blankie and a bottle and
keep the boogeyman away?"
"I know it sounds ludicrous that the most important election of our
lifetime is coming down to who can best pacify the electorate's inner baby,
but I can think of no better explanation as to why Bush is not currently
hovering at around five percent in the polls a voting bloc made up of
those hardcore fanatics who are as utterly blind to reality as he is.
"As long as we're operating from our lizard brains and reason takes a
back seat to more primal needs George Bush will continue to survive the
logic-based attacks on his ever-escalating failures.
"The only question that remains is: can Bush, Cheney and Rove keep us
shrouded in the fog of fear long enough to brain John Kerry and win in
November?"
This is an article titled: Appealing to Our Lizard Brains
By Arianna Huffington, AlterNet. Posted October 13, 2004.