It is quite amazing to watch this hypnotic spellbinding effect in action on my mother from the "news churn." I have introduced her to other perspectives hundreds of times that counter her indoctrinated beliefs of official narratives. Cognitive dissonance, as you explain, "the cost of coming out of compartmentalization into a worldview of integrity, and the discomfort of constructing a new conceptual framework for reality," is literally too challenging and threatening for her and is immediately memory-holed. What I have seen is that she is easily lost by the shiny bling of diversions everywhere else, not only as the result of the quick and noisy news churn. Any chance of forming clear thought or reflection on the information provided, is immediately stymied. As she even admits, "In one ear, and out the other." I mention something to dislodge her beliefs and suddenly she's looking out the window, making comments out of the blue, like: "look at those black clouds" or "my plants need watering" or "your father wants dinner" and the whole discussion is over and done with, completely forgotten and buried. I'll call her back later and say something like, I'm sorry I disturbed you with such and such, do you remember what I said" and she will reply "huh? what are you talking about?" ..Just amazing..
I would like to believe that my boomer generation has the capacity over the Great Depression generation of my parents to hold on to these dissonances in our understanding of reality with focus and reflection, and make some sense of what is going on with ourselves and the world. What was the advantage of the mediation craze with all of those American Buddhist teachers traveling to India to learn the lessons of the East? Wasn't it to learn how to think clearly again without allowing ourselves the habit of being hijacked by the distractions coming from every direction? We are such a dysfunctional society. TV being the most hideous offender. People's attention spans are as long as a 30 second commercial. I know this is not an original thought. But it is very true. Try talking at length with some professionals, and you'll still get the idea that this person is waiting for the commercial. Or try to hold a conversation without being inundated with all of their sales pitches, selling you on their favorite TV show, or why they decided on purchasing the latest iPhone. Really important stuff! If you move the conversation along towards current events, well, then again, don't bother, because you will just get authoritative regurgitated sound bites that they memorized from Rachael Maddow just to look smart for this occasion.
“The membrane of celebrities and entertainment and partisan bickering overlays public perception of the world almost the entire time, only occasionally being disrupted by short-lived blasts of dissonance piercing through the fog.“
This is what I fear is happening with the Dore/TYT/Mate controversy.
Yet I found Caitlin’s put down of those not commenting on it quite compelling.
Ah, well. Here I go again. My core disagreement with caitoz. I say that what she describes is not something hard wired into people’s minds. It is a feature of a minority with brain dysfunction.
It is a feature of the way people are educated, socialized, conditioned. Normal people whose heads are not messed up this way quickly change their internal schemata to conform to change in external reality.
The trouble is that it is often quite dangerous to think straight when dominated by “bad brains” who need an artificial reality to make themselves make sense to themselves, and for whom clear thinking is a mortal threat.
The only solution is to remove the bad brains from power and from society. This idea gets amygdalas in a knot like nothing else.
Then it is a matter of teaching people more normal thinking patterns. Or perhaps just how to unlearn the warped thinking patterns they have had to adopt in order to survive.
I understand this article to be speaking to everyone who is living in the belly of the beast. Most of us compartmentalize systemic injustice and immorality because the alternative of rising up as an individual is to get shot down and we don't know how to organize a rebellion that won't likewise be crushed. Like our with own gut fauna and flora, the system's has powerful, swift and sure immune reactions to entities that obstruct the program.
A very important article thank you. The voice in our head that pretends to be us is the big lie, the filter which prevents truth based living.
Cognitive biases, dissonance and compartmentalization recede sufficiently into the background when we no longer identify with the compulsive, incessant “me” voice.
Yes, from lies to truth, which begins with the recognition that we are all here together in Life. This Life we share is our only unfailing rock to hold on to. Makes all that cultural bullshit recede a bit, now seen more clearly.
Again, thank you, Caitlin. To whit: Just because it's out of the news doesn't mean that Israel has stopped murdering children in their sleep. It's what Zionism regularly does, right under that membrane.
Even though the US and UK judicial systems lack all credibility at this point- isn’t this still a flagrant violation of habeus corpus?
It is quite amazing to watch this hypnotic spellbinding effect in action on my mother from the "news churn." I have introduced her to other perspectives hundreds of times that counter her indoctrinated beliefs of official narratives. Cognitive dissonance, as you explain, "the cost of coming out of compartmentalization into a worldview of integrity, and the discomfort of constructing a new conceptual framework for reality," is literally too challenging and threatening for her and is immediately memory-holed. What I have seen is that she is easily lost by the shiny bling of diversions everywhere else, not only as the result of the quick and noisy news churn. Any chance of forming clear thought or reflection on the information provided, is immediately stymied. As she even admits, "In one ear, and out the other." I mention something to dislodge her beliefs and suddenly she's looking out the window, making comments out of the blue, like: "look at those black clouds" or "my plants need watering" or "your father wants dinner" and the whole discussion is over and done with, completely forgotten and buried. I'll call her back later and say something like, I'm sorry I disturbed you with such and such, do you remember what I said" and she will reply "huh? what are you talking about?" ..Just amazing..
I would like to believe that my boomer generation has the capacity over the Great Depression generation of my parents to hold on to these dissonances in our understanding of reality with focus and reflection, and make some sense of what is going on with ourselves and the world. What was the advantage of the mediation craze with all of those American Buddhist teachers traveling to India to learn the lessons of the East? Wasn't it to learn how to think clearly again without allowing ourselves the habit of being hijacked by the distractions coming from every direction? We are such a dysfunctional society. TV being the most hideous offender. People's attention spans are as long as a 30 second commercial. I know this is not an original thought. But it is very true. Try talking at length with some professionals, and you'll still get the idea that this person is waiting for the commercial. Or try to hold a conversation without being inundated with all of their sales pitches, selling you on their favorite TV show, or why they decided on purchasing the latest iPhone. Really important stuff! If you move the conversation along towards current events, well, then again, don't bother, because you will just get authoritative regurgitated sound bites that they memorized from Rachael Maddow just to look smart for this occasion.
“The membrane of celebrities and entertainment and partisan bickering overlays public perception of the world almost the entire time, only occasionally being disrupted by short-lived blasts of dissonance piercing through the fog.“
This is what I fear is happening with the Dore/TYT/Mate controversy.
Yet I found Caitlin’s put down of those not commenting on it quite compelling.
Ah, well. Here I go again. My core disagreement with caitoz. I say that what she describes is not something hard wired into people’s minds. It is a feature of a minority with brain dysfunction.
It is a feature of the way people are educated, socialized, conditioned. Normal people whose heads are not messed up this way quickly change their internal schemata to conform to change in external reality.
The trouble is that it is often quite dangerous to think straight when dominated by “bad brains” who need an artificial reality to make themselves make sense to themselves, and for whom clear thinking is a mortal threat.
The only solution is to remove the bad brains from power and from society. This idea gets amygdalas in a knot like nothing else.
Then it is a matter of teaching people more normal thinking patterns. Or perhaps just how to unlearn the warped thinking patterns they have had to adopt in order to survive.
Keep up the good work, caitoz.
I understand this article to be speaking to everyone who is living in the belly of the beast. Most of us compartmentalize systemic injustice and immorality because the alternative of rising up as an individual is to get shot down and we don't know how to organize a rebellion that won't likewise be crushed. Like our with own gut fauna and flora, the system's has powerful, swift and sure immune reactions to entities that obstruct the program.
A very important article thank you. The voice in our head that pretends to be us is the big lie, the filter which prevents truth based living.
Cognitive biases, dissonance and compartmentalization recede sufficiently into the background when we no longer identify with the compulsive, incessant “me” voice.
Can you please get another narrator voice? I'm always afraid he is going to fall asleep before he can finish. Or put me to sleep.
🥰
Yes, from lies to truth, which begins with the recognition that we are all here together in Life. This Life we share is our only unfailing rock to hold on to. Makes all that cultural bullshit recede a bit, now seen more clearly.
Again, thank you, Caitlin. To whit: Just because it's out of the news doesn't mean that Israel has stopped murdering children in their sleep. It's what Zionism regularly does, right under that membrane.