The Brain and the Political Process

Politics is the art of getting people to act without thinking. Mankind’s reptilian brain or “inner lizard” facilitates that task. Truth is not used in politics. Once a notion is registered as the truth with a person’s reptilian brain it is treated as the truth. Lets call these reptilian truths. Once the reptilian brain accepts a notion as true it is treated as such usually for a lifetime. What are some reptilian truths? Here are just a few, but reptilian truths are the root of all political interaction and discourse.

The United States military fights for freedom. Every person needs a college education. Ronald Reagan was a conservative. Mankind is a freedom seeking species. Government is benevolent. Patriotism is a virtue. Politicians run for office because of a desire to serve. Presidents cause economic growth………..The list could get real long but none of these things are true. These kinds of notions are examples of reptilian truths. Reptilian truths determine how people vote.  Some may have been true at one time but none are true today.  Reptilian truths don’t change. A new generation may function in line with more reality based reptilian truths but once established, that is the way it is. Time can change a reptilian truth as new generations take over running the world. For at least forty years the reptilian truth that Roosevelt ended the Great Depression was accepted. Younger generations eventually came along and examined the facts.

The reptilian brain is concerned with survival. In aggregations of people, the reptilian brain takes over so that within a tribe or herd the thinking on big issues is standardized. There would be no peace otherwise. Suppose that in today’s world folks rejected the reptilian truth that the United States military fights for freedom. The country would be in unbelievable turmoil every time a president launched a missile attack on a foreign country.

When the United State was being established, the founding fathers had no idea how the political arena would end up operating. To have a well functioning democracy based system, at least a few citizens have to think with the larger part of their brain. That is not happening. When reptilian brains are all that is used in decision making the process is not much different than the system used by genuine reptiles. Reptiles can’t think. Humans can think but don’t.

A good politician is one who has a well developed intuition with respect to tickling the reptilian brains of constituents. Thinking is discouraged. Information is horded. Opinions are managed. Citizens are in fact in charge of government as long as the criteria for reaching decisions is all reptilian truths.

The truth is a hard sell. Fantasy Free Economics gains readers one at a time. Major search engines simply do not list blogs which disagree with their political agenda. As long as folks share the link to this blog and others speaking out against the grain, the truth will at least trickle into the public consciousness.

Fantasy Free Economics recommends the following blogs.

Of Two Minds Liberty Blitzkrieg Mises Institute Straight Line Logic Paul Craig Roberts

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About Fantasy Free Economics

James Quillian independent scholar,free market economist,and teacher of natural law. Who is James Quillian? Certainly I am nobody special, Just a tireless academic and deep thinker. Besides that, I have broken the code with respect to economics and political science. Credentials? Nothing you would be impressed with. I am not a household name. It is hard to become famous writing that virtually no one in the country is genuinely not in touch with reality. But, if I did not do that, there would be no point in my broking the broken the code. If you read the blog, it is easy to see that there are just a few charts, no math and no quantitative analysis. That is not by accident. Given what I know, those items are completely useless. I do turn out to be highly adept at applying natural law. Natural law has predominance over any principles the social science comes up. By virtue of understanding natural law, I can debunk, in just a few sentences , any theory that calls for intervention by a government. My taking the time to understand the ins and outs of Keynes General Theory is about like expecting a chemistry student to completely grasp all that the alchemists of the middle ages thought they understood in efforts to turn base metals into goal. Keynesian theory clearly calls for complete objectivity. Government can only make political decisions. Keynesian techniques call for economic decisions. So, why go any further with that? Fantasy Free Economics is in a sense a lot like technical analysis. Technical analysis began with the premise that it was impossible to gain enough information studying fundamentals to gain a trading advantage. Study the behavior of investors instead. Unlike technical analysis, I don't use technical charts. What I understand are the incentives of different people and entities active in the economics arena. For example, there is no such thing as an incentive to serve with life in the aggregate. In the aggregate, only self interest applies. It is routinely assumed otherwise. That is highly unappealing. But, I am sorry. That is the way it is. I can accept that because I am genuinely in touch with reality. Step one in using Fantasy Free Economics is for me to understand just how little I really know. A highly credentialed economist may know 100 times what I do based on the standard dogma. Compare the knowledge each of us has compared to all there is to know and we both look like we know nothing at all. There is always more than we don't know than what we do know. I am humble enough to present myself on that basis. Why? That is the way it is. I am not bad at math. I have taught math. What I understand is when to use it and when to rely on something else. Math is useless in natural law so I don't use it. While others look at numbers, I am busy understanding the forces in nature that makes their numbers what they are. That gives me a clear advantage.