Yesterday, I watched a great PBS program on Netflix called “This Emotional Life”, in which they showed how the human brain processes and creates emotions. One of the most intriguing comments made by a neuro-scientist was that we continue to create new pathways in our brain. As an example, our animal brain or amagdyla, which sees everything in black and white and is the source of anger, revenge, etc. has pathways to our more advanced frontal brain; however, the more advanced brain has no way to reach the lower brain and control it. Those pathways are still “under construction”! To me that is such a fascinating challenge and opportunity. The ongoing evolution of the brain also suggests that we grow more “intelligent” as our societies become more advanced and complex. Therefore, societies with mass education, strong infrastructures and law and order should produce more advanced brains. But like our individual brains, it seems the lower part of the brain still has the highway rights to the higher brain, and easily overpowers it. Just like the individual brain, as societies the more intelligent and self-aware portion of society is overrun by the crude, simple and ancient animal brain in us. Witness the attempted murder of a young girl by fundamentalists in Pakistan or killings of civilians by Syrian forces, and so on. Here in our nation, witness the Islamophobia gripping our society, which is used to justify more wars abroad. It is a clear example of fear trampling common sense and rational thinking, supposedly a domain of civilized societies.
What the program also discussed is that cognitive behavioral therapy is used to treat fears, phobias, etc. by asking the patient to surface those fears and “re-appraise” them. If one has a fear of flying, one has to face that fear and talk about it, and re-program the brain to think differently which then leads to more productive manner of handling those emotions.
Imagine, if we as a nation could “re-appraise” our manufactured fear of Muslims, both at home and abroad, and could break the mutually reinforcing beliefs which create the emotions of fear and threat on the one hand (see the hate industry link below) , and total inhuman treatment on the other hand (as in Guantanomo Bay) or drone attacks in Pakistan on innocent civilians under the guise of getting a “terrorist suspect”, emphasis on the word “suspect”. See the foreign policy article from AntiWar.com below, called “Blame the Muslims”.
Imagine if we could actually face our fears, discuss them and create more productive and civilized responses as nations. That was the original intent of the United Nations, but it has strayed far from it. But even if we did have mass education and civilized society, what would it take to heal our thinking, to dispel our fears, to treat others with respect as nations and to have the frontal part of our brains lead dialogue, not the animal brain react and unleash more violence. Imagine that as a possibility for the planet and for all nations – may that day come true despite all efforts counter to that. And until that day, may my faith keep me strong in these hateful times.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/an-industry-built-on-hate-how-the-right-wing-successfully-brought-anti-muslim-bigotry-into-the-american-mainstream.html#
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/10/24/blaming-the-muslims/
Be First to Comment