BRAIN BUZZzzzzzzzzz

Good morning! It's February 2016 and I discovered the beginnings of a blog I abandoned in  2008. We are going through the same political rituals once again (whoop dee do)
and the sequel to the 2008 production so far  is a doozy. 

Any text in blue is new to now just so you know. Text in black is from 2008.





Anaïs Nin:
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Partisans on both sides don't let facts get in their way. Both can hear the same information and come out with a different take. Now neurotechnology can capture what part of the brain is activated by a certain function. And speaking of the brain, it also seems that it was evolved not necessarily to think rationally but to fit into a certain crowd or identity group. In other words, loyalty to a group can really dumb you down .



"The feeling of partisan loyalty is an obstacle to rational thought." Partisan thought is unconscious"



Culture is man-made. (I doubt God has anything to do with it. ) And while culture is a necessary condition for insuring the survival of it's dependent organisms it also imposes strict limitations on perception and thought. These past eight Bush years have pointed to the fact that education and intelligence do not add up to good leadership. The "slam dunk" assessment preceding the premptive war on Iraq brings one to the conclusion that the people close to the president (not to mention " the decider" himself) were totally lacking in the ability to think comprehensively. Their thinking was linear ,conventional and in no way fixed upon the common good. How come? What was missing in these articulate high achievers clustered around the decider? You might say common sense and I'd have to agree with you. But there's more to be wished for in our leaders...an all inclusiveness, an ego able to transcend false division and political agendas. It's what we used to refer to as statesmanship.

" The human mind was not selected for by evolution to be a perfect reasoning machine"

"The evolution of the brain not only overshot the needs of prehistoric man, it is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ which it does not know how to use." Arthur Koestler

To tell you the truth I'm still mad as hell at what happened in 2000. The idea of, say, Trump becoming president is  not as far fetched as Bush becoming president. Well, he has moved on and so should I. Jeb's brother George who is a nice enough man but one wildly misguided by those around him at the time. Don't you sometimes reflect on where we would be if Gore had become president? He would not have invaded Iraq of that I am sure. Well, he has moved on and so should I.

"The mind is like a parachute - it works only when it is open."

Frank Zappa

"There is no evidence that the tongue is connected to the brain" Frank Tyger

WHAT...are we still hung up on this? Evolution vs. Intelligent Design

Richard Dawkins...where are you when we need you?

Julia Sweeney

Michael Schermer

Vilayanur Ramachandran

MEMES Dan Bennet

Susan Blackmore

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR

Go to TED

I go to bed