Laurence Gonzales's book "Deep Survival" should be required reading in college for many reasons.
One reason is that he talks about why some very smart people make really stupid decisions and he dissects it from the standpoint of how our brain functions.
In the first two chapters of the book, he talks about how emotions can hijack our brain and lead us into very poor choices. He also touches on how extremely intense emotions are addictive. Drugs like amphetamines make colors brighter, sounds more intense and make time stand still. So do super-intense emotions. Amphetamines are very addictive. So are intense emotions. That is why people ride roller-coasters and watch horror movies. It makes them high.
We are in a period where the internet supplies outrage. There is a huge market for outrage just like there is a huge market for meth.
Carving an elephant
A sculptor was asked how he was able to carve such life-like elephants.
He responded "Start which a huge block of rock and then remove every bit of rock that does not look like an elephant."
That appears to be the essence of modern journalism and "influencing". Start with a messy, real-life story and then remove all of the ambiguity that might dilute outrage.
Somebody went to the Emergency Room for a medical issue and died four days later? It HAD to be because the ER screwed up. Leave out inconvenient facts like the woman did not speak English and left the hospital against medical advise. Ignore the fact that she had a child and nobody to watch the child when the problem got worse, so she didn't return to the ER. Ignore the fact that Covid protocols were in place and every process became insanely more convoluted.
Even without those complications, people regularly die of sepsis. Even rich, powerful white people who speak excellent English and have access to the best care in the world. People like Jim Henson.
When does a fetish become a disorder
The acid test of when a habit becomes a problem is when it starts interfering with your life. Does it interfere with your ability to work with others and do your job? Does it cause friction with family members? Does it cause needless stress with your neighbors?
I think if we take several steps back to get a little bit of perspective, we would have to admit that Stimulated Outrage Disorder* is widespread and expensive.
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Once you have named the problem and can chart out causes and enablers and fire-extinguishers...then the problem can be recognized, identified in the wild and managed.
*I made that term up.
That's as good as anything else out there!
ReplyDeletePeople love to be outraged - look at all the women who took the time to post videos of themselves after taking the time to set up a camera and perform their outrage on camera.
ReplyDeleteOutrage is popular because it short circuits reason and goes straight to emotion. And all competent politicians and power brokers know it's far easier and successful to appeal to emotion than to reason.
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