I can remember when there were going to be fights in High School. Word would spread, and everyone would rush to the scene. As the fight began, the air was electric. People were yelling, and pushing to see. When punches landed, you could hear the sound, punctuated by the crowd’s noise.
Those fights produced radical changes in our cognitive function. Adrenaline surged, heart rates increased, eyes got a little wider, muscles moved quicker, energy surged, and everyone was amped up.
I believe that was a minor version of what is happening in our political world now. Previously politics was an environment filled with satiated cowards who used social pressure to rigidly enforce a certain pacifistic decorum. Donald Trump has stormed into that environment, and introduced an aggressive, confrontational stimulus. As the cowards have tried to shame him into abiding by the old rules, his disregard for them has only added vigor to the fray, adding to everyone’s perception that the environment has changed.
Suddenly we are all, to some degree, in that crowd around the fight. Our amygdalae are lighting up, our adrenaline is flowing, our eyes are a little wider. In this state, we become a little more confrontational. It is beginning to show in the political world.
Major Garret just lit up Barack Obama in the middle of a press conference, over the fact Obama didn’t get the four Americans being held by Iran freed. (Of course it is much worse. We got several Iranian prisoners freed all over the world, and gave amnesty to an Iranian terrorist, to sweeten a deal that saw Iran receive money, and get delayed verification, while they kept a former FBI agent, a Marine, and two other Americans as hostages.)
If Trump remains on the stage, this will increase. Now he is calling Christians to battle by highlighting how badly they have been treated, and promising to represent them better than any politician in a long time. That is an amygdala triggering, aggressive, confrontational stimulus – a real call to battle. I have no idea if he is just an aggressive Scotsman who likes battle, or if he actually hired somebody who understands the amygdala and its use in motivating crowds, but it is brilliant.
He will change the entire political dialog, simply by acclimating people to a more confrontational political environment, where people speak their minds, and score by striking out at an enemy. If he sees tremendous success from this strategy, we will see more unctuous politicians enter the fray, and the nature of our political debate will change even more. This can only benefit the K-strategy.
We may never end up quite like Taiwan, but a little aggression in the pursuit of American greatness will be a very good thing.
it really is quite simple. people back the strong horse.
the GOP are always quick to capitulate to the media even when they say the right thing. most people do not like that and the fact as you highlight with the story of Ben Stein who does advise the GOP really undermine the entire political platform.
this is why people end up despising the GOP.
People are weird on the whole – like some herd animal.
yes they are.
but the so called leaders are not supposed to be part of the herd. yet today they are almost all in the ranks of the sheeples.