Anyone who can scare people enough can sell any semantic map that seems to give them relief
It should be no surprise that most people, most of the time, are controlled more by the older Limbic system and Emotional-Territorial Circuit than by the Time-Binding Semantic Circuit (rationality), or that the semantic circuit is so easily perverted into false logics (bigotries, intolerant ideologies, fanaticisms of all sorts) when the Limbic system signals threat to life or the Emotional-Territorial Circuit flashes threat to status.
Cynics, satirists and “mystics” have told us over and over that “reason is a whore,” i.e., that the semantic circuit is notoriously vulnerable to manipulation by the older, more primitive brain circuits. However much the Rationalist may resent this, it is always true in the short run. Whoever can scare people enough (produce Bio-Survival anxiety) can sell them quickly on any semantic map that seems to give them relief. By frightening people with Hell and then offering them Salvation, the most ignorant or crooked individuals can “sell” a whole system of thought that cannot bear two minutes of rational analysis.
And any domesticated primate alpha male, however cruel or crooked, can rally the primate tribe behind him by howling that a rival alpha male is about to lead his gang in an attack on this habitat. These two mammalian reflexes are known, respectively, as Religion and Patriotism. They work for domesticated primates, as for the wild primates, because they are Evolutionary Relative Successes. (So far.)
References
- Wilson, A., Robert. Prometheus Rising Chapter 6 The Time-Binding Semantic Circuit (Location 1054). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Sociology / Sociobiology / Psychology / Neuropsychology / Evolutionary Psychology / Politics Status:☀️