Emotional Maladaptations

Emotions are evolutionary adaptations that have served countless species in their quests for survival success. They perpetually influence our actions, prompting us to engage in behaviors that bring feelings of joy and avoid behaviors that evoke fear or misery. The fight or flight reflex is an emotional reaction. Members of our species lacking it were quickly devoured out of the gene pool.

It is important to recognize “Fight or Flight” as a false dichotomy. There is a third option, inaction, which humans are capable of exercising. This is actually a very powerful option. When presented with a situation that inspires fear or anger of which we have no control over, the ability to take no action at all serves us well. Our energies are then put to better use once we cognitively assess the emotional reaction and work past it.

The three greatest emotional motivators, in my estimate, are anger, fear, and happiness. Anger serves a species when it prompts its members to defend against predators or establish territory. Fear prompts members of a species to flee predators and avoid the behaviors that attract them. Happiness encompasses all of those behaviors that bring contentment to the animal, be it feeding, sex, or caring for offspring.

As usual, our Neocortex complicates things. Many people engage in behaviors purely to evoke a fear response. They jump out of perfectly good airplanes, watch horror movies, play chicken, and scare themselves silly in numerous other ways to coax their bodies into dosing them with adrenaline.

These are maladaptations of our emotional reactions, for example experiencing fear in a situation that we cognitively recognize as non-threatening. We are frightened by what we see in a horror movie, but know that what we are seeing is not reality and we are actually safe in a theater.

Media and rhetoric exploit this maladaptation. Pundits, politicians, and advertisers are just some of those who would manipulate us into fear, rage, and joyful emotional responses for their own ends. They successfully control much of our population through this cognitive weakness.

Becoming aware of those who would exploit us is the first step to taking back our personal cognitive freedom. Emotional literacy is the second step, recognizing our own emotional responses for what they are and the reason for that response. Dissipating the emotion when no constructive action is possible or harnessing its power to motivate toward a productive end are just two strategies for coping with our maladaptation.

Emotional Maturity involves harnessing the power of our Neocortexes to overcome the demands of our feelings. It’s a self-reflection exercise, identifying the physiological symptoms and correlating them with the correct emotion. It is another dimension toward cognitive mastery over the flaws in our evolutionary biology.

Anger

“When I channel my Hate to Productive,

I don’t find it hard to Impress.”
– Pantera

Anger is a great motivator, and serves an important purpose in our lives. Outrage inspires us to rally against injustice and defend the oppressed. Anger inspires us to engage with those things we perceive as threatening us. While engagement is a good thing, anger victimizes others and ourselves when we overreact. There’s no need to carpet-bomb when a precision strike will achieve the same strategic result.

“The people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country.”

– Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Reich-Marshall during WWII

If a threat does not exist, then we are tilting at windmills (ala Don Quixote), expending time and energy on imagined injustices. These are also known as Straw Men in the realm of logical fallacies. Those around us who are capable of keeping perspective, while we descend into fury, will either regard us as absurd or delusional for our overreactions. Hitler created monsters out of the Jews using the same emotive appeals American Conservatives and Liberals employ to demonize one another today. These emotional-exploitation tactics are less effective in the modern world because we have a population that is more educated and self-reflective overall.

The best defense against those who would control us through rage is perspective. Often it takes additional research to achieve this, especially when we hear something that outrages us from a single source. Second and third opinions must be sought, other perspectives.

Then we must have the perspective of how this issue relates to us and our capacity to do something about it. If we are in a position impotent to make change, then we must dissipate the emotion. Taking a deep breath and counting to ten or exercising are just two methods of dissipating unhealthy rage.

If we are in a position to take action, then we must channel our anger into a constructive means. This is probably the most difficult thing to accomplish of all. Our gut reaction is to raise our voice, sling hurtful insults, or resort to violence when we are enraged, but the rational mind knows that these reactions will only hurt our cause. Vengeful speech and action cripple the possibility for peaceful mediation and can turn a dispute with the possibility of compromise into a zero-sum game.

A pause is necessary before taking action. We must collect ourselves, let our rationality speak to us, form a logical plan of action, and then execute it. By maintaining the sense of injustice or threat perception, we find the strength to carry through with our actions, and by maintaining our rational cognition, we can walk away from those actions with the ease and peace of mind that comes with doing the right thing.

Fear

“We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”
– John F. Kennedy

Fear is the flipside of the “Fight or Flight” false dichotomy. Fear serves an important purpose in our lives. It prompts us to care for our appearance, study for exams, and perform well at our jobs. Without a healthy amount of fear in our lives, we would lack the motivation for many of our behaviors that do not directly impact our survival.

When our sympathetic nervous system responds to a situation we perceive as threatening, it elevates our heart rates and releases adrenaline into our systems. These are incredibly powerful physiological responses that override our normal perceptions and drown out our rational capacities. Fear then becomes a shortcut to controlling us, circumventing logical means of persuasion.

There is a persistent climate of fear inhibiting the actions of many citizens today concerning terrorism. I have several friends who are still so consumed with anxiety over the WTC Attacks that they shy away from public gatherings on Independence Day and New Years, fearing a repeat of those traumatic events.

While sympathizing with these avoidance behaviors, we must simultaneously recognize them as a decisive victory for the Terrorists who orchestrated the attacks. Americans cowering in their homes, eyes transfixed on their news channels, subconsciously seeking any new development to validate their fears, are the terrorists’ desired end. A modicum of perspective in the fearful might cause them to recognize that their perpetual anxiety holds much more potential to end their lives.

Confrontation is the key to overcoming those who would control us through fear. We must engage those situations that scare us. For the social phobic, this means making eye contact with those who intimidate us. For the arachnophobic, handling tarantulas. In the case of pundits using argument through fear, recognition of the logical fallacy and a healthy anger response are appropriate.

Keep in mind that fear is temporal; it will not last forever. It will dissipate, like easing into a hot bath, our bodies adjust to the temperature just as our emotions adapt to the fearful situation. The Parasympathetic nervous system will eventually kick in and shut down the anxiety, but we can also take proactive measures, such as grounding and breathing exercises, to combat our body’s attempts to override our minds.

The alternative is to allow ourselves to be herded like so many ideological sheep.

Happiness

“You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.”
– Eric Hoffer

Eating, sleeping, and sex are just a few of the basic needs we fulfill on the road to happiness. The instinctual sense of contentment a mother finds in caring for a child is a survival mechanism for our species. Without happiness as a motivator for social interactions and cooperation, the human race would lack the communitarian instincts so crucial to our success as a species.

With all of our basic needs satisfied, human beings are left to flounder for purpose. We’ve got full bellies, cures for parasites, sicknesses, televisions, air conditioning, etc, etc, all of which make us happier than our ancestors. We’ve become acclimated to our existing happiness and now want more.

People take different means toward finding more happiness. Some find happiness in amassing material possessions, others in acquiring status, some find happiness in life experiences, hobbies, self-improvement, eating, or medication. None of these behaviors are necessarily good or bad, kept within cognitive moderation.

Happiness becomes a detrimental maladaptation when it leads to addiction. Just as advertisers use sexually suggestive material to exploit our sexual maladaptations and grab our attention, advertisers, pundits, and politicians also abuse our motivations toward happiness to persuade us. Life will be better, they promise, if we just use their brand of toothpaste, vote for their candidate, or eradicate the opposing ideology, then we will have removed all barriers to our personal happiness.

Resisting such appeals to happiness involves recognizing the difference between short-lived jolts of happiness and the deeper, more fulfilling and sustainable lifetime of personal satisfaction. Happiness comes from within as an attitude we have the power to cognitively cultivate. When we rely on externalities for our happiness, we surrender control of our minds to those things.

Happiness resides within our own power, no matter how much the pundits scream “they” are trying to strip it from us. We have no one but ourselves to blame if we allow outside forces to detract from our sense of well-being. Taking a cognitive approach to our sense of happiness is the only way to evade such mind controls.

American Republicans and Democrats love to paint themselves as independent-thinking, anti-establishmentarians. Republicans decry Academic and Cultural elitists. Democrats decry economic elitists. Both of these groups are actually rattling their sabers at the American Meritocracy and scapegoating away the weaknesses in their own ideologies.

First let’s consider how the two social architectures most often charged with elitism compare to democracy. Corporations have Executive Officers, which are a top-down hierarchy, but they also have stockholders, who exert democratic controls over the company’s management. Similarly, Universities have Deans, but they also have faculty who vote on their institution’s management. Each of these architectures has customers and students who exert control through their patronage.

A combination of representative democracy and populism help steer the course of these institutions, making them meritocratic. The personal attributes each institution emphasizes differ. Economic Institutions value Managerial aptitude and demonstrated economic skills, i.e. wealth. Academia values Instructional skills and a demonstrable aptitude in a person’s field of choice, i.e. degrees.

Are these systems perfect? What democracy is? Pundits who carry no weight with these systems often cry that they are elitist because they are exclusionary, but they are actually complaining that they are not directly involved in the legislative process. This is like calling American Democracy elitist because one was unable to get elected to Congress.

Charges of elitism, as the political parties employ the term, often require vast, yet undiscovered systems of organized conspiracy to support them. The reality is that these are emergent systems, not cognitively engineered social environments. They are not as authoritarian as their detractors would like to make them seem, and if they are exclusionary, then it is because certain ideologies are not well suited to their environmental dynamics.

When a pundit uses the word “elitist,” they are scapegoating, pure and simple. They are making excuses for why their ideology is less successful in some aspects of society. The socialist leanings of liberalism are simply not well adapted to success in the free market. The rejection of pluralism in conservative thought makes it ill equipped for academia. Rather than admit the weakness of one’s ideology and compensate, it’s easier to claim the system is at fault.

The worst part of this rhetorical abuse is how it works to strip the hard work of those charged with it. People who work through nearly a decade of grueling research and application to acquire a PhD are reduced to mindless drones who merely conformed to some liberal paradigm. People who spend their entire lives amassing wealth and the status that comes with it are accused of either benefiting from nepotism or fortunate birth. The personal sacrifices, fantastic demonstrations of willpower and effort are all stripped from these people with that one word, “elitist.”

There is a term for such a rhetorical abuse, ad hominem. Everyone is entitled to express their opinion in the marketplace of ideas, and have them evaluated on their own merit. Respectful and productive discourse has no place for personal attacks.

Note: There is a second definition of “Cultural Elitism,” which is synonymous with snobbish behavior. Substituting the word “snob” with the more sophisticated-sounding “Cultural Elitist” is pretentious, and a form of Cultural Elitism itself. No?

I just want everyone to know that I am ready for oil production to begin its decline. I own a lightweight pickup truck, a motorcycle, and a mountain bike. I’m settling into the town where I live and I have enough money to pick up and move into a major city should things become unproductive here. I have no nostalgia for simpler times, when people actually lived in those “amber waves of grain” instead of them being just a nice place to visit.

The change will occur gradually, but faster than any other aspect of our economic growth. The warning signs are emerging, but we might have another decade of easing into the hot tub of nightmarish gas prices. I have no idea to what degree the changes I am going to describe will manifest, but I am certain they will happen noticeably, and the effect will be only temporary, no longer than a half-century at the most, until the next personal transport device emerges.

The problem is this: China is coming online, and its need for energy is projected to increase by 150 percent by 2020. I think that’s great for China, a people and a country with an admirable industriousness (but a government that could use a little more liberalization). Combine a population as massive as China’s buying more cars (By year 2010 China is expected to have 90 times more cars than in 1990), requiring more electricity from Oil and Coal based electrical plants, and producing more oil-based synthetics, with a world that is within five years of finally beginning that great big slow sucking sound of their Oil Production going into decline.

The problem I have with writing an essay like this is that it sounds as though I am being an alarmist, but I see no cause for alarm. This is a wonderful opportunity for our civilization to evolve. One aspect of our lives, transportation, will become more difficult and we’ll overcome with some easy adjustments to our social architecture. So indulge me this first public venture into futurist thought:

I think we are about to see gradual, but wonderful changes in the architecture of our civilization, as people cannot afford personal transportation. The car People will have to start taking the plane, the ferry, the metro, or the bus. People will start facing their neighbors once again. Or they can ride their bike, moped, motorcycle and become more active and in tune with nature. Cars will become tiny, minimalist and compact. Many people will feel exposed at first, but become acclimated to riding in cramped compartments and begin to enjoy the ride.

People will migrate. The cities will suck up the populations in suburbs. Communities will begin growing up instead of out. Mass Transit will finally bloom. No more traffic jams on the freeways. Telecommuting will become a more viable work environment.

The real nuclear option will reemerge in public debate. The strange allegiance of Oil Industry Lobbyists and Environmentalists against Nuclear Power will crumble. A safer, cleaner, more efficient source of electricity will replace the smoke stacks and antiquated industry of today. Instead we will have the massive towering steam stack and beauty of Nuclear Power Generators. In the interim, solar power will gain more market share as Electric Companies consume the excess energy they produce from homes to combat Oil and Coal-based power prices.

Won’t some people simply pay the higher price? Of course they will! And they will flush their money down the drain, making themselves less economically competitive. They will knock themselves down the market food chain while their neighbors adapt up it.

The same exact thing goes for industry. Where will the money presently stockpiled in oil go? The answer is outward. It will be freed for experimentation. As oil’s monopolization of funding evaporates, new solutions will consume those investment dollars and we will see a brief surge in variety.

The OPEC nations will face transformation as their systems of government lose the only thing ensuring their power: the state-owned oil industry. The Saudi Royal family’s tyranny will evaporate as they are forced to cash out and abandon their country, unable to leverage their resources into any other enterprise because of the way they have abused and oppressed their people. Like a shockwave, the shift of political power will strike America as lobbyists seek to fill the vacuum left by the oil industry.

We’ve been drinking oil en mass for almost a century now. Why? Car companies are only now starting to seriously look into alternative fuels. It’s time for a change, and I applaud the alarmists in our civilization who will act as catalysts for it. The doomsayers foretelling many apocalyptic repercussions of this emerging situation will induce panic in the market, which will drive oil prices higher prematurely, forcing civilization to adapt more quickly.

Ironically, I suspect that Civilization will not collapse precisely because the doomsayers will predict its collapse. A healthy dose of alarm in our world generates the fear necessary to affect change.

Let the evolution begin!!!