Cheney Speaks to the Reptile Brain
Filed for future reference…
Interesting use of simplified political neuroscience:
http://www.opednews.com/hartmann_081804_cheney_reptilian.htm
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Cheney Speaks to the Reptile Brain
by Thom Hartmann
OpEdNews.com
“I am not unaware of the effect of the ridicule cast on this instrument of
defence by those who wished for engines of offence.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison referencing damage done to
morale by jokes about the US Navy, May 21, 1813
It’s Willie Horton all over again. The Bush family is subjecting Americans
to psychological operations, only the level of sophistication and deception
is an order of magnitude higher than it was in 1988. And it could turn the
election, if not used effectively in rebuttal.
Here’s how it works, and how Dick Cheney just used it masterfully:
We humans, being the product of a long evolutionary process, really have
three brains. And, as the Bush psy-ops folks know, politicians who win
campaigns do so because they speak to all three of those brains.
First there’s the most primitive of our brains, sometimes referred to as the
“reptilian brain” because we share it in common with reptiles like
alligators and komodo dragons. The reptile brain has a singular focus:
survival. It doesn’t think in abstract terms, and doesn’t feel complex
emotions. Instead, it’s responsible for fight-or-flight, hunger and fear,
attack or run. It’s also non-verbal - you can stimulate it with the right
words, but it operates purely at the level of visceral stimulus-response.
The second brain is one we share with the animals that came along after
reptiles - mammals. The mammalian brain - sometimes referred to as the
Limbic Brain because it extends around and off of the reptilian brain in a
dog-leg shape that resembles a limb - handles complex emotions like love,
indignation, compassion, envy, and hope. Anybody who’s worked with animals
or had a pet knows that mammals share these emotions with humans, because we
share this brain. While a snake can’t feel shame or enthusiasm, it’s
completely natural for a dog or cat. And, like the reptile brain, the
mammalian brain can also be stimulated indirectly by words, and is also
non-verbal. It expresses itself exclusively in the form of feelings,
although these are more often felt in the heart than the gut.
The third brain - the neocortex (”new” cortex) - is something we share with
the higher apes, although ours is a bit more sophisticated. Resting over the
limbic brain (which is, in turn, atop the reptilian brain), our neocortex is
where we process abstract thought, words and symbols, logic and time.
When Dick Cheney recently took John Kerry’s comment about sensitivity in the
war on terror out of context and spun it for his audiences, he was
performing a psychologically masterful bit manipulation of all three brains.
Only ridicule with a subtext of fear has this power.
“America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of
them was won by being sensitive,” Cheney said, firing first the thinking
brain (”too many wars”) and then the limbic brain (”for our
wishes[/hopes/ideals]”). And then he went for the reptile brain: “…but not
one of them was won by being sensitive.”
