[extropy-chat] The political brain

[Samantha Atkins]

Hmm.  Many of us question our world view often.  So how did that come  
about?  Believing that people cannot or do not change their political  
thinking leads to some dangerous places.  It is reminiscent of the  
notion that there are separate truths for different classes and no  
objective truth.   I would think that part of what makes politics  
difficult is first that few of the starting assumptions for a  
particular political POV are easily if at all tested on testable.  If  
on top of that it is assumed that being of viewpoint X automatically  
makes one hopelessly incapacitated to see much if any truths held by  
viewpoint Y then immediate frustration follows labeling quickly  
followed by dismissal.

- samantha

On Jul 13, 2006, at 2:13 AM, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:

> The political brain
>
> http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm? 
> articleID=000CE155-1061-1493-906183414B7F0162
>
> This very good article says that when it comes to politics we tend to
> forget reason and run by emotions: ""Essentially, it appears as if
> partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the
> conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it,
> with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of
> positive ones,"".
>
> This is probably the reason why transhumanists never seem to come to
> any agreement when political positions are concerned. There must be
> some kind of emotional attachment to political ideas formed early in
> life, that switches reason off when it comes to questioning one's
> worldview.
>
> Or, to say it like our grandfathers (there is nothing new onder the
> sun): you are blind to what you don't want to see, and deaf to what
> you don't want to hear.
>
> G.
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