An Explanation Better Than 42 (Part 5)

 

Now I’m tempted to say that having an enlarged ACC is superior to an enlarged amygdala, but we do need both.  Granted, we are not likely to encounter a poisonous snake or hungry bear in our travels (unless we are the new Secretary of Education), but we do still encounter situations that require unmitigated response.  Seeing a car approaching out of the corner of our eyes should alarm us into retreat back onto the curb.  Thank you, amygdala.  Reaching to pet a dog that suddenly snaps at our fingers should cause us to immediately pull back our fingers.  Thank you, amygdala.  Fearing that a Muslim fanatic will cut off your head or send you anthrax through the mail, if you’re an accountant in Trenton, New Jersey, is also attributable to the amygdala but not nearly as worthy of gratitude.

Our brain structure goes a long way to explaining the differences between us.  One of the refrains in discussions of social and political topics is right wing belief versus left wing reasoning.  Lefties constantly accuse righties of failing to see reason when they encounter righties who use articles of faith, tradition, memes, and such to advocate their position.  Think about the Benghazi fiasco in the States.  Benghazi became a rallying cry for opposition to Hillary Clinton when much more salient repudiations of her character were available.  Right wingers chose to ignore tampering with the democratic system under  Hillary’s watch and her burgeoning wealth from association with Wall Street and chose instead her use of a private email server (?) and the Benghazi incident which was kyboshed almost as soon as it came out.

But on closer examination, these two red herrings that conservatives pursued so vociferously in the shallow end of the pool represented the sort of rallying cry of paranoia that characterises people who are amygalalicly gifted (say that quickly three times).  Like ‘Remember the Maine’ or ‘Remember the Alamo’ or ‘Osama bin Laden’ or ‘Terrorist Threat’ or 'Lock Her Up' these memes resonated with the emotions of the alarmist cadre of Reaganites, Bushites, and Trumpites.  Alarm is okay, but when it becomes obsessive and self perpetuating, it no longer responds to reason but becomes the basis of Angst, conspiracy theories and paranoia.

continued by popular demand