Biconceptual Brain Change

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We have it in our power to begin the world over again. ~~Thomas Paine
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SHAPING THE BICONCEPTUAL BRAIN

Excerpt from the new bestseller:

THE POLICICAL MIND, Why You Can't Understand
21st Century Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
By George Lakoff (2008)

....The historian Lynn Hunt has studied the history of perhaps the most central ideas in the founding of America, written by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

"We take these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Hunt shows that these truths were not always self-evident. She argues that it took a century after the Enlightenment for these ideas to become "self-evident" and that the mechanism was the arousal and cultivation of empathy with those in other social groups, apparently via what we now understand as mirror neuron circuitry and associated pathways, through novels, art, and other cultural media. Empathy, she argues, was the historical basis of our democracy. That is consistent with what I have found by studying the moral worldview that makes sense of our most treasured ideas.

American democracy was founded on the politics of empathy and responsibility, with the role of government being protection and empowerment. From these flow the progressive ideals of equality, freedom, fairness, opportunity, general prosperity, accountability, and so on.

We also start with real reason: It is largely unconscious and appropriately emotional. It is embodied, and the way it is embodied gives rise to frame-based and metaphorical thought.

Mutual inhibition and neural binding give rise to biconceptualism: the reality that we may have both progressive and conservative modes of thought, but use them in mutually exclusive ways over different issue areas. As a result, there may be people who identify themselves as conservatives but have progressive values in many issues: being good stewards of the environment, having a nurturant view of God, running a business that is consistent with the public good in all ways, and wanting to live in a progressive community where people care about and take care of each other. Progressives can connect with such folks if they address areas of common values.

As conservatives have taught us, social change involves many changes: material changes like war, the distribution of wealth, and the state of the environment; institutional changes like the constitution of the Supreme Court, the destruction of governmental capacities, and corporate consolidaton; media changes, as in the control of radio, TV, and newspaper outlets. But the change that laid the grondwork for all of them was brain change: an extension of strict father morality to area after area, with corresponding alterations in public discourse.

A change back to democratic ideals and forward to an ecological consciousness will require brain change as well. Mutual inhibition and neural binding are central to understanding how such a change would work. Most Americans have both strict and nurturant worldviews in their brain, with each neurally bound to certain issue areas. Social change requires activating the nurturant, progressive worldview so that more issue areas in more brains will be bound to -- and, hence, instances of -- that worldview.

That is the mechanism. The means are language, images, and narratives that positively activate the progressive worldview, while acting negatively to inhibit the effect of the conservative worldview.

Our democracy is presently being threatened by the politics of obedience to authority, the very thing that democracy was invented to counteract. The politics of authority is succeeding because conservatives have been activating their ideas in the brains of the public, while finding ways to inhibit the use of progressive modes of thought. Progressives failed to uphold the spirit of American democracy by activating the ideas of empathy, responsibility, protection, and empowerment in the brains of their fellow Americans, thus allowing the basis of our most sacred principles to fall by the wayside and leaving the field open for conservatives. We must change this. Democracy is too important to leave the shaping of the brains of Americans to authoritarians.

There is a lot to be done: electing better political leaders, refurbishing democratic institutions, preserving our environment, constructing a more democratic economy, educating future leaders, informing the media. But all this will require changing minds, and hence brains. The capacity for empathy is there. It must be cultivated if democracy is to revive and flourish....

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http://www.contemptforrove.com

TWO EASY CLICKS TO Help Send Karl Rove to jail

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20309.htm

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ARIZONA SENATOR'S PLEA FOR TRUTH ABOUT 9/11

Sen. Karen Johnson's floor speech about 9/11 in East Valley Tribune- Needs Comments http://911blogger.com/node/16663

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STOP THE SMEARS

Help fight the far Reich-Wing lies about Barack Obama, by publicizing his site:

http://www.fightthesmears.com

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[BUSH (crime) FAMILY VALUES]

Published on Friday, May 9, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER.
by Vincent Bugliosi

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/09/8834/

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Help Defeat NeoCon Warmonger John Bom Bom McSame

About JStreetPAC
JStreetPAC is the first and only federal Political Action Committee established to explicitly promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israel conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.

The PAC's goal is to demonstrate that there is meaningful political and financial support available to candidates for federal office from large numbers of Americans who believe a new direction in American policy will advance U.S. interests in the Middle East and promote real peace and security for Israel and the region. http://www.jstreet.org

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FROM:

An Efficient Way to Spread Truth That Everyone Can Do
By Colombo

Since our mainstream media continue to censor 9/11 truth, I urge everyone to begin “mass emailing” 9/11 truth messages now! It is not difficult to disseminate thousands of emails per day. Here are some tips to get you started: http://www.911blogger.com/node/13321

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New York Times Bestselling Author Takes Aim at 9/11 Coverup:

http://911blogger.com/node/13135

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SUPER THERMITE FELLED WTC on 9/11?

Iraq war veteran and experienced demolitions expert blows the cover on 9/11 inside job:

Meet Torin Wolf. He has a broad and varied background as a US Army Combat Nurse during Operation Iraqi Freedom....

....The presentation moves on and goes through some of the just plain crazy theories of why the towers fell, such as space beams, holograms, missiles, orbs, pterodactyls, etc., and easily debunks them. Torin then adds, "There is evidence most of these are put out by the government as disinfo." Then explains how the White House, in violation of the law, has bought 28 billion, "Billion with a B" in fake news.

"But the craziest, most truly unhinged conspiracy theory for the towers falling on 9/11?" Torin asks rhetorically. "Fire." The official story cannot be recreated by any experiment. NIST is the government agency involved in attempting to model what happened to the world trade center on 9/11, and they fail horribly....
http://rinf.com/alt-news/911-truth/expert-blows-the-cover-on-911-inside-job/1619/

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[Your Tax Dollars (and super thermite?) At Work?]

9/11 Inside Job Smoking Gun Video

If tens upon tens of firefighters, paramedics, and EMT's said in late 2001 and early 2002 that they saw flashes at the base and middle of the Twin Towers and heard multiple explosions "like gunfire" immediately prior to each towers' collapse, would you listen? Can you look at the evidence with fresh eyes? No disinfo or sloppy logic here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDKa1Q1GwTQ

http://digg.com/politics/Powerful_new_9_11_video_may_change_your_mind_about_controlled_demolition

This can go viral with your help.

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D E C E P T I O N D O L L A R S

click over to http://www.deceptiondollar.com

"Squandering money has never been so much fun":
http://www.911blogger.com/node/7840#new

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