6 min read
I’m working on a document that would help me understand why people will become Trump supporters and then stop thinking about any other possibilities at all. Full stop to critical thinking. I started doing some research into the brain’s different processes for decision making and thought I was making some progress.
Yesterday, my husband and I were at a party and an acquaintance of ours (someone that we keep running into) was there. We can’t get close with him and his wife because he is a full blown MAGA supporter and there are some other issues as well. Some other issues made themselves known yesterday in a way that we just hadn’t recognized previously!
He made a beeline for us when he saw us and started telling us about how he and his wife bought his new home. He had to show us pictures of it and wanted us to know that it was 1000 square feet larger than their last home with 2 more acres of land. Now hubby and I are newly retired, and they are less than ten years behind us and often talk about downsizing. They are DINKs (double income, no kid) actually have one child who is grown and out of the house and a high earner, so…
In any case, these two live in a 3,600 square feet house and mow 2 acres of ground every two weeks, own a boat and motor home and are living the dream. He explained to us in detail how much money he spent on each and everything and how great each and every thing is, to include that riding lawn mower.
What just happened?
Besides the remarkable consumption of goods and services, is that this man did not shut up as his wife stood quietly by nodding and agreeing with all that he had to say. The house is so big, she can’t clean it, so someone comes to help her, is the only little bit that she added to the conversation, but that was It, it was all him. Can you say selfish? Can you say “me-focused”? He couldn’t stop talking about himself. And everything was about how much he had consumed. The very definition of narcissist behavior. Everything in the world is about him. He is vain, selfish and self-centered. He deserves his treats because by God, he works for them. His attitude is very entitled.
He also missed experiencing anyone else at this party. Anyone there at the party would have loved being listened to. Anyone. He could have become an important person, by being a listener. He definitely has not achieved any level of importance here at this party. How can he, because who wants to admire a blow hard? The change he made in me was all negative.
From the One to the Many
I think that this is important information about human behavior because it indicates an inability to engage and experience. His cognition is limited. This is important information as we talk about human cognition overall. He will avoid any experience that does not allow him to stay unchanged. In other words, his brain is never challenged. He never has to think. All he ever has to do is pull a file out of his aging file cabinet and review the contents. He does not, nor has he ever had a management position, he is an engineer. Managers get a lot of feedback. Engineers don’t need to. Engineers live in a black and white world that is clear to them and others.
Scientists have wondered for decades why Homo sapiens survived when all others (Neanderthal, Denisovans) did not. It seems that the brain and cognition may very well have much to do with it. Cognition appears to have determined survival.
Let’s add to this information the whole idea of neuroplasticity and the human being’s ability to adapt which makes the human able to continue growing and developing. Never has it been more clear to me than today and that is that the oppressors will not and do not want to change. Why would they? They are on top. They are winning! They have no need for adaptability, no need for neuroplasticity. When you are on top creating all of the rules there is no need for learning.
I’ve written this in a moment of frustration and it makes so much sense here: People all over the world practice one upmanship on each other. This is a survival skill. Being on the bottom of the “regard” pile is unsafe. Everyone treats you badly and you can be murdered here. The murder can occur without thought and without anyone knowing and then without anyone caring.
This is the danger you are in – if you are on the bottom of the humanity pile.
How do we humans get to safety? How is it possible to make us all safe? How do we mark ourselves safe from each other? There is only one way and that is to create a world of equality. Create a world in which each of us is as important as each other is and money is no measure of a human.
How Did Abortion get Involved Here?
If you consume the news, you will notice that women have finally come up against the male’s resistance to change.
You start to hear why men don’t want to talk about abortion, because men’s misogyny becomes clear. When the supreme court discussed Arizona’s and the Federal law which should trump Arizona’s law in the sense that the Federal law should allow healthcare providers to give women abortion care if they are having a miscarriage and you can hear in Amy Coney Barrett’s voice this surprise like “are you kidding me?” betrayal. We are going to put this woman who is hurting and in danger of being further hurt on a helicopter and we are sending her to a new state because we don’t want to honor the Federal law (EMTALA) over the 1864 Arizona state law? It was the male justices who are comfortable with allowing this kind of treatment of women who are in pain. The male justices who are comfortable with putting an injured woman on a helicopter to cross state lines because of an abortion issue.
Men Don’t Want to Change
The men’s misogyny is coming to the surface when we start discussing in depth, when we have that in depth discussion about abortion and that’s why we don’t want to have these discussions because we don’t want to reveal how much misogyny is present, particularly in the Supreme Court. That goes back to my point about men’s ability to change their thinking. Their ability to think differently and their ability to change. What’s happening right now is that men don’t want to change. The abortion issue is the iconic issue for them.
They don’t want to change and the abortion issue is the issue they are creating a band wagon around to keep things the same. It’s not just in regards to women, it’s in regards to everything. Men want to stay superior, there is no doubt about it. They want to stay on top. They don’t want anything to risk their superiority in this society. They are making sure that they keep their place on the top of the heap. This used to be a survival skill. Way back when we were hunter gatherers. The necessity for that skill has been gone for at least hundreds of years.
The way they are going to maintain superiority is by not changing anything. They want this society to stay the same to maintain this superiority. They are going to do this by staying on top right here right now.