From Jeffery Lord at the Spectator: Bill Buckley Was Right: America in the Grip of the Liberal Mania :
What Buckley knew in 1959 was this:
“I shall be assuming that in most respects the liberal ideologists are, like Don Quixote, wholly normal, with fully developed powers of thought, that they see things as they are, and live their lives according to the Word; but that, like Don Quixote, whenever anything touches upon their mania, they become irresponsible. The liberals’ mania is their ideology. Deal lightly with any precept of knighterrantry, and you might find, as so many innocent Spaniards did, the Terror of La Mancha hurtling toward you. Cross a liberal on duty, and he becomes a man of hurtling irrationality.”
What he describes is the trigger, the hijacked amygdala it produces, and the desperation to alleviate the angst. It is the exact same force which drives Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In NPD it is directed at shielding the false self – that image of perfection and flawlessness the narcissist needs to cling to, in order to keep from breaking down mentally. In liberalism it is directed toward shielding the consciousness from the variables associated with K-Selected conditions, namely the societal elevation of free competition, protectiveness, loyalty to group, monogamy and family values, and sexual modesty.
The article goes on to say:
So. What to do? Buckley’s suggestion was concise. Understand that the liberal mania is intrinsic to liberalism… Thus making “the liberal mania” an issue unto itself — if only today’s conservatives are willing to stand up and take it on directly…
The next time an episode of the liberal mania sweeps the land… will more and more conservatives recognize it for exactly what it is? And make a point of standing up, identifying the liberal mania for the “hurtling irrationality” that it is — and fighting it?… To fight the liberal mania — it first has to be named correctly and recognized for exactly what it is.
In other words, hijack that amygdala relentlessly, until the liberal will no longer seek to assuage the angst by oppressing others.
One of the single most destructive memes to liberalism will be a greater understanding of the amygdala, the amygdala hijack, and the greater perception it leads to – that liberal rabbits are neurotic, overemotional pansies, whose every outcry is some sort of overly-emotional inability to cope with simple reality. It takes the idea of liberal mania, roots it in a simple mechanism, easily visualized and fully supported by reams of available scientific literature, and packages it in an easily replicable meme designed to spread from conservative to conservative like a virus.
That greater perception is easy to imbue, based simply on the most casual examination of liberal behavior. Once imbued, it is reinforced with every exposure to liberalism, and once reinforced, it will vaccinate the individual against ever taking anything a liberal says seriously, ever again. Once ever-present, it will shame liberals into not exhibiting their over-emotionality, and by extension, force them to abandon public liberal advocacy. Once there is no advocacy for liberal deviancy, societal normalcy shall return by default. I encourage everyone to spread the meme wherever rabbits seek authority.
Along those lines, I see links coming in here now from all over the net, each at a low but constant level. Combined, all of these links add up to some excellent traffic levels of late. Daily traffic, which just one year back was an unbelievably lucky confluence of several high-traffic blogs linking here simultaneously, (and which I went for years without even approaching) is now a baseline level of daily traffic, sans any recent major linkage from anyone, and it is still rising rapidly. Thank you to all the readers here who have posted a link on a site elsewhere, and helped spread all of this. That help will all hasten the day that everyone sees liberalism for exactly what it is.
I’m very hopeful in the coming decades that we will see a confluence of r/K Selection awareness, widespread awareness of the amygdala model of ideology, a Conservative Policy Mood apogee, and maybe a conservative political ascendancy, all just as the collapse the rabbits have set up bottoms out. If the timing is right, it may not be long before American is set back upon her path and returned to her former glory.
So then can a Hijack be caused by laughingly pointing out the quixotic nature of the response as Amygdala driven emotions, a nonsensical Knighterrandry?
Yes, exactly. And if you do it in such a way that everyone around begins laughing with you, the hijack will be multiplied several hundred fold. I think a lot of this vulnerability in libs arises from childhood psychological traits that we have outgrown, but they have not. When I was a kid, being the kid at lunch who had to sit alone would have been awful. Today, sitting alone and reading at lunch means nothing. At it’s apex this transformation turns into Vox Day, who gets hated and as a response revels in the fact he now has enemies to destroy.
The absolute optimum way to do what Buckley says, and what the amygdala model indicates, is to bring about the day when a liberals says, “But we have to XXXX because of YYYYYYY,” and everyone rolls their eyes and laughs, because everybody just disregards what they say as the result of liberal mania, amygdala dysfunction, inferiority, etc. I think the amygdala is an excellent meme to do that, but if Buckley could have advanced the liberal mania idea, it would have worked as well.
It is kind of like a narcissist trying to shield himself with what he says. If he feels stupid, he makes himself out to be smarter than everyone, and rages if anything indicates otherwise. As a result you know that what he says is that soft, vulnerable underbelly which will kill him if it is attacked. What do Liberals say? We are more intellectual. We are more logical. We are more empathetic. We are more moral. We are superior. Conservatives are those weird, fearful, emotional cavemen.
Take that away by pointing out that they are manic neurotics, unable to cope with even mildly stressful concepts without freaking out uncontrollably and insisting on ridiculous solutions, and you will savage them emotionally. Get society on board with the meme, and goodbye liberalism. It helps that the amygdala model is probably correct according to the science, so it jibes with the unscientific reality when thought about. As a result it will spread easily, given the strangeness it explains. It also helps that the liberal’s fundamental nature is hyper-neurotic, and that neurosis is triggered by uncomfortable reality, which is the definition of the amygdala model that can spread so easily.
I like to explain this in terms of the situational awareness scale. ( A good primer: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/08/15/managing-stress-arousal-for-optimal-performance-a-guide-to-the-warrior-color-code/ ) The rabbit brain seems to have particular trouble operating in Condition Yellow, which depends on the ability to be mindful but tolerant of possible danger. This yellow-blindness has repercussions on one’s entire worldview.
Firstly, it means that they’re stuck with Condition White as a default, which depends on a safe environment. Moreover, this being their perception of normal, this is what they will fight to defend: a Condition White world that is perfectly safe, which conditions dependence upon that environment; not a Condition Yellow world, full of unknown challenges which condition a sense of competence. These two viewpoints are going to have differing perceptions of what constitutes a serious threat. In Yellow, something that merely has the capacity to be dangerous– say, a polite stranger with a gun– isn’t necessarily going to justify a reaction; in White, any disruption of perfect safety conditions is cause for alarm. Indeed, the rabbit has an easier time blocking out actual specific threats than environmental disturbances.
Secondly, it means that any disturbance from Condition White must either lead to a full-blown adrenaline reaction in Condition Red, or reinterpreting reality to allow remaining in White. In a K-adapted brain, Condition Orange, where one is still prepared to back down, is a state of alertness where backing down means still remaining generally alert; whereas in the r-adapted brain, backing down means going back to the tuned-out state. The rabbit’s Condition Orange is more of a Condition Beige, whereupon being faced with reality, backing down means going back to the tuned-out state.
Anything wrong with this perspective?
It makes good sense in light of the amygdala model. The K tolerates amygdala triggering, because they are accustomed to it, and find it a useful means of motivating adaptation to the environment. The rabbit seeks to avoid amygdala triggering by any means, even if by denial of threat. The only thing I’ll add is I would assume rabbits will either go to red, or short circuit, and fail to go red. What makes the difference I don’t know, but I’ll bet that in the coming disturbances, we will see rabbits who convert to wolves, and others who deny right up until they are savaged.
In the aftermath, my guess is K will be the overwhelming majority. We will see.