Reason is dead in America.

[Az]

It should be obvious to everyone but lets spell it out. Reason is dead in America and Emotionalism reigns supreme.

Politicians, Corporations, the Media. They all wish to move people in numbers. To manipulate them and control them. Reason is useless for this purpose. But fortunately for these institutions we are not primarily reasoning beings. Our primary way of thinking is emotional.

Simply put our brains are emotional engines. We store all events and memories with emotional correlations. When we seek to recall events they are recalled relative to how we feel about them. When we try to decide where we stand on an issue we relate it to the emotional relevance we remember it with.

Reason only raises its head when we have doubts. When two or more ideas conflict with one another emotionally and we cannot judge one to be more powerful emotionally we turn to tools we have developed in order to shift this balance. Reason, logic, and critical thought are some of the tools we have developed to do this. But there are others such as peer pressure, signs of portent, supersticion, and other practices.

So because the major institutions of communicating ideas in our nation have no interest in promoting reason and critical thought (its harder to sell things to people that use such things) we are awash in a world of emotional appeals. The big emotions like fear and love are primary motivators. So of course expect to see danger and children everywhere. The carrot and the stick. But reason will ever be hard to find.

Thus our politics becomes nothing more than a marketing campaign. Who has the brightest smile. Who appears to be the bravest and can stand up to those nasty villains whoever they may be. Ideas? Too complex. Its time to save babies from terrorists. Never mind why the terrorists are pissed in the first place. Thats too much thinking. The fact that they are terrorists is all we need know.

Reason is dead in America. It just doesn't have the ratings the ad execs need to sell their products.

[shance]

1. When Greed thrives, reason dies.

n/t

[acmavm]

2. People have become 'Pavlov's dogs' and the media has them

trained to jump, sit, bark, roll over, and play dead by using the correct 'catch words'.

[Annces]

3. Or you can say emotion is dead, because people are reasoning themselves

into playing it safe, playing a waiting game, instead of leaping to action, as emotion can aid you in doing.

[More Than A Feeling]

4. If that be the case, then we need to adapt our tactics or be left behind.

There is a good book out now called Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe, which addresses exactly the situation you suggest, and what is to be done about it. His bottom line is that we need to become better at the "ethical spectacle" (which is the sort of an emotional draw backed by reason), and borrow from sources like Las Vegas, Grand Theft Auto, and advertising to learn how to communicate to people that what we are selling will make them happier and their lives better. Las Vegas teaches that people don't mind over-the-top spectacle, so long as you don't try to convince them that the spectacle itself is real. GTA teaches that people long to put themselves in the place of the Other, who may act in ways that they themselves never could. Advertising shows that people want to believe that they can take simple actions that will at last make them happy. Progressive politics can incorporate these elements, and sell our exact same, well-reasoned message, without boring people to death or making them feel guilty.

[Az]

5. We have adapted our tactics

But the problem is that leading with emotions does not necessarily lead to a good place. It reinforces itself and over time becomes hysteria and overreaction. The eventual outcome is attacking another nation because someone said they were evil.

I suspect that if you look through the history books a build up of emotionalism in societies inevitably leads to a collapse from which reason has to rebuild. I don't know if there is a way to head this off or change the course.

[More Than A Feeling]

7. I don't know either, but it is the hand that we have been dealt, and there is no folding.

We play on, as best we can.

[baby_mouse]

6. KICKED. AND. RECOMMENDED.

STRONG TRUTH.

[malaise]

8. Al Gore is about to change this

Thankfully. Enjoy the ride.

[More Than A Feeling]

11. You really think that publishing one book is going to change a electronic media-soaked culture

especially one that is constantly working to to connect to the emotional needs of its target audience? Why?

[RestoreGore]

14. It is going to take more than Al Gore, and I think that's the point of his book

Recommended.

[malaise]

19. Correct

Try and see his interview with Diane Sawyer. He was very good on Larry King last night.

[RestoreGore]

23. Already wrote about both interviews

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=949319&mesg_id=949319

He was good, they weren't.

[mudesi]

9. Spot on. K & R (nm)

[unpossibles]

10. while I don't necessarily disagree

I find it funny that freepers have accused the Left of the same thing, that we are ruled by emotion and not logic/reason.

Of course, practically everything they say is the opposite of reality, so maybe you're on to something. But I feel that, like the argument for 'nature v nurture' I don't believe that reason and emotion can or should be separated. Each tempers the other and should, as either without the other is a serious problem. Without emotion, you have no empathy or sympathy, Joy or sorrow. Without reason you have no grounding in reality.

Isn't this the Apollonian/Dionysian dialectic?

[More Than A Feeling]

13. Nietszche, is that you?

:hi:

[BoneDaddy]

22. You can say the same thing about

stuff in here. Irrationality runs rampant in here as well.

[Az]

24. Forums such as this

Unfortunately reward anger and other strong emotions. A well reasoned post that everyone agrees with quickly drops to the bottom while a contentious issue that everyone wants to get a piece of stays glued to the top.

[unpossibles]

27. YOUR'E SO WRONG!!!11!! I HATE YOU

just kidding, obivously.

[Odin2005]

35. "Isn't this the Apollonian/Dionysian dialectic?" Yep!

The stuff the Boomers did back in the 60's and 70's was a result of a revolt against a society that had become too Apollonian. Now the Western world is primed to revolt against a social order that has become too Dionysian.

[stillcool]

12. But...as soon as I opt out..

of the paid to say commentary...it's extraordinary how I recoup, and my world once again returns to reason, where I can clearly see cause and effect. Not only is the bullshit, bullshit,...but I think it is purposely designed to elicit a knee-jerk response...in effect blinding me with my own emotion.

[Az]

18. You mean you don't think we should save the children?!?!

Knee jerk reactions is exactly what the media loves most.

I am reminded of newly hatched baby chicks. Back in high school we hatched some chicks in bio class. I got to take the box of them home for a weekend. One of the interesting things about them was that you could tap on the side of the box and they would as a group march over to the tapping. Tap on the other side and they would rush to the sound.

This is exactly what the media craves. Being able to present a stimuli to the public that practically demands a reaction. It doesn't really matter what the reaction is. As long as they can gurantee a reaction they can learn how to use it to turn a profit.

Your kids are in danger! We'll tell you how at 11:00.

[stillcool]

20. when I think of all the things...

I've fallen for....defending Howard Deans' scream, John Edward's house, or John Kerry's green tea drinking wind surfing..I've been such a sucker trained seal.

[More Than A Feeling]

21. Why does defending those things bother you?

No reason to feel guilty, Dean, Edwards, and Kerry deserved to be defended. Still do.

[stillcool]

25. It bothers me to get sucked...

into fabricated brou-ha-has that have no bearing on reality. Because the pay to say folks tell me I should be concerned about how things play in Peoria, rather than the well-being of man-kind.

[More Than A Feeling]

26. Yeah, but the catch is that if you don't, then those things eat our candidate up.

I'm sure some people complained that the swiftboaters were a distraction not worth dealing with either.

[Az]

28. How can people not react to such attacks

They are so sparkly and shiny. That catches the initial reaction.

When the candidates try to ignore it and move on to more reasonable issues all the opposition has to do is keep waving that sparkly shiny bauble around and it continues to distract. More and more fall into its mesmerizing spell.

Reason is difficult to hold to at the best of times. Our emotions constantly bubble up and sway us one way or the other. So it is easy to play the numbers and expect that you can dismantle reason with shiny sparkly baubles such as personal attacks.

[stillcool]

29. I think it's about choices...

and sanity. I no longer want to choose to be mired in emotional rhetoric that at the end of the day..has no effect but to leave me spent. I have to go beyond, behind, underneath the orchestrated drama that is performed on the public stage, and find 'reason', or cause and effect for the day to day occurrences.

[BurtWorm]

15. It's not dead.

It's resting.

(Beautiful plumage.)

[enki23]

16. pining for the enlightenment

.

[BurtWorm]

17. It stuns easily.

(Beautiful plumage.)

[Scriptor Ignotus]

30. When was it alive? - eom

[depakid]

31. K&R couldn't have said it better myself

Emotion short circuits the reasoning process, as anyone who's studied the art of rhetoric or behavioral science knows.

Understanding this- and learning how to think critically is, more anything in America these days- a tool for self-defense.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. K & R!

:applause:

[Odin2005]

33. Based on my reading Reason is about to return very shortly.

The US seems to flip back and forth between Emotionalism/Romanticism and Rationalism every 35-50 years. We have been in a Emotionalist period championed by the Baby Boomers since the late 60's. Before that (From the early 30's to the late 60's) we were in a Rationalist period championed by the GI Generation.

[stirlingsliver]

34. Your Post Makes Me Feel Good!

Your post makes me feel soooo good!

Thanks for posting it.

I hate feeling bad.

[BlooInBloo]

36. And it's *always* someone else's fault - that's the best part.

[Straight Shooter]

37. Not dead. Merely in a catatonic state.

:(

[Writer]

38. Reason never existed to BEGIN with.

The Enlightenment was an ideal that we never reached. It failed.

[Az]

39. Total reason maybe

But society has embraced reason as an ideal form time to time. It does appear to be cyclical and may explain why politics ebbs and flows as it does.