Men's Health (June 2012) reported "persuasive" BRAIN AND THINKING research from the field of advertising (Clay Warren, Ph.D. "Men's Wealth"). Parts of the brain triggered by type of information works beyond commercial enterprise. We've seen it work the same way throughout worlds of media, politics, bureaucracies ...human dynamics in general.
Bottom line: when we communicate information by giving facts, we stimulate the listeners' orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala (Centers of Rational Thought and Impulse Control). We do this if we want to allow our listener, bystander the opportunity to think (not react from a primitive place).
Brain researcher, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. (My Stroke of Insight, 2006) reminds us to wait just 90 seconds for strong emotion to course through us and complete its course. We can breathe through any emotion to "clear" it. Then we can RESPOND, not react.
On the contrary, we can cause an unsuspecting bystander to bypass rational thought processes by showcasing attributes which foster a narrative (e.g. "you'll be sexy too if you buy this car" "fair share" "big business and the little guy"). IMAGERY stimulus triggers the non-rational, emotive part of our brain.
To avoid reacting emotionally to Imagery-Narrative Stimulators, a person must be able to regulate emotional responses ... catch himself/herself emotionally before displaying reactivity. Children grow in regulatory responsibility (when supported by language-mediated models). Males, more than females, ON THE AVERAGE, reach responsible regulation later (in their twenties). Intelligence development is correlated with regulatory capacity. And unfortunately, age has little to do with this: not all adults are developed sufficiently to catch themselves before reacting...before they have caused damage, started brush fires, committed to something they later wish they hadn't.
Comedians and gangsters (particularly intelligent sociopaths) instinctively know what Clay Warren uncovered...though perhaps not consciously. Some politicians and bureaucrats deliberately use these tactics to inflame, enrage, urge followers to jump on their bandwagon. We see this with entire groups dedicated to inflaming mob reactions (e.g. Black Panthers, Occupiers, Weathermen, etc.).
We see strategic use of inflammatory language (narratives of victimization, images of old day civil rights marching, etc) among faux " leaders" like Al Sharpton (MSNBC) and Jesse Jackson. As Daneen Borelli notes (Blacklash, 2011): instead of updating and redesigning themselves to match the reality of advancement, they must recreate the painbodies of the past ... over and over... to regenerate what they perceive as their usefulness (and generate $). They keep themselves sourced through recreating images and the language of victimization.
Who else prises himself on similar rhetoric, lowest common denominator rhetoric (LCDR) ?
If we really want to stimulate higher intelligence and mindful decision-making, we talk about the economy with facts and figures. When we can't do that, LCDR creates distractions geared to pull others into primitive reactionary states of being.
If our audience has developed sufficient emotional self-regulation, they will pull back from the imagery, the narrative. We are all subject to its power because we all have experienced what we know through social exchange as victimization.
As long as individuals are born differently into not-perfect-for-me circumstances, we have opportunity to perceive the experience of victimization (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 2005) . As of now, it's unpleasantly part of being born into the human family on planet Earth.
Brain researcher, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. (My Stroke of Insight, 2006) reminds us to wait just 90 seconds for strong emotion to course through us and complete its course. We can breathe through any emotion to "clear" it. Then we can RESPOND, not react.
Regulate your emotional response to those words and the images they stimulate in your brain.
THINK about it. (Images and narratives of victimization, forced redistribution, persecution, classes, tribes, divisions) Precisely what is the gain? for whom? And what is the greater loss for all? Activate your orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. If we want to achieve A New Earth, we need to cultivate not reactivity, but responsiveness. Mindfulness. Growing our awareness of the bigger picture towards panoramic. We CAN DO .
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