Dichotomania Is the Root Cause of Partisanity

All of this hatred of Americans across the aisle is beyond stupidity beyond insanity it is a sign of a species on the brink of selfdestruction For 12 generations we Americans have been among the most noble idealistic and brotherly people on Earth with the exception of the Civil War and the ramp to it Howdy neighbor In only the last ten years we have fallen so far back into something like the conditions that led to the Civil WarHow did this happen so quicklyThis post aims to expose the roots of the phenomenon and by such means establish the path to its cureThe main root of this tree is the acceleration of the amount of information processed by the human brain In the early 1970s I wrote a book Mind Magic which postulated that this Acceleritis had been going on since the beginning of written language about 4000 years ago but that it was exponential By the 1970s we were already immersed in too many questionproducing stimuli per day We no longer had time to assimilate all of it We were merely coping with life by shifting into what I called Emergency Oversimplification Procedure EOP And I predicted it would get worseIt got worseOne of the main symptoms of EOP I wrote is dichotomania pigeonholing everything into either the good box or the bad box forgetting that shades of grey can exist It didnamp8217t occur to me to predict that with a twoparty political system which George Washington warned us against establishing it would only be a matter of time before each party put the other party into the bad box with no room for forgiveness or understandingPartisanity is a word I just coined to mean the form of nonsanity that manifests as hatred and disgust toward people in the political party that must be the antithesis of oneamp8217s own since everything is either black or white Acceleritis pushes people into EOP EOP produces dichotomania In a twoparty system dichotomania produces partisanityI first noticed this tendency toward blackandwhite thinking as a child watching westerns on television The good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats That made it easy to tell them apart Thinking was unnecessary This is what happens when almost everyone is in EOPFrom the point of view of advertising or brainwashing EOP makes it very easy with enough repetition frequency to convince any EOPer of almost anything EOPers are susceptible to hypnotic suggestion and repetition as long as one doesnamp8217t accidentally use a word that signals that you are in their bad box They are Pavlovamp8217s dog They are optimizing for the least use of their thinking apparatus There is not enough time to consider all the evermounting complexity so the best thing to do is join a successful herd and hide in itThat is how partisanity sustains itself Each side repeats the signals that tell its own herd who belongs in the good box and who belongs in the bad box The repetition feels like information but it prevents information from being consideredFortunately EOP is not the only state available to usThere are many people who spend goodly amounts of time outside EOP These are people who have metacognized enough to have minds that are relatively open I call this middle state the Observer state People shift in and out of EOP but when they are in the Observer state they tend to have sound judgment learn new things quickly and know how to have conversations that are friendly and productiveThe famous OCEAN model used for finding good people to hire starts with Openminded then adds Conscientious Extraverted Agreeable and NonNeurotic Openmindedness comes first for a reason It is the ability to keep new information out of the good box and the bad box long enough to see what it actually meansThere is a third level of consciousness known as the Zone or Flow state In this state hypofrontality is shown by EEG and fMRI measurements The methodical thinking process is not going on but wellpracticed skills are doing themselves automatically and performance is perfect for the needs of the situation There is code running in the front brain but it is wellworn code and does not involve resolving things that have been solved beforeWe see this in jazz musicians as they create new improvisations they have never used before letting their bodies and intuitions merge in a state of childlike playfulness with no ego attachments to possible outcomes People in Flow are not hiding in a herd They are fully engaged with what is happeningAdvertising has to work smarter in order to do its job on people who are in the Observer state or the Flow state That is not a drawback It is why the best creators of advertising have always agreed on the same general procedure Absorb all the relevant information about the clientamp8217s business and brand its customers and its competitors and their customers Then go away from thinking about the subject at all and have fun Be ready to take notes when ideas suddenly erupt from your subconscious and you know that these are genius ideasThat process starts in the Observer state and culminates in the Flow stateWhat the best ad creators do is therefore not merely a creative technique It is a small working model of how human beings can process great complexity without collapsing into oversimplification First observe without premature judgment Then allow integration to occur Finally act with the whole mind rather than with the frightened reflexes of the herdAdvertising and business are not the whole point They are places where this change can begin because they bring people together every day to absorb complexity exercise judgment create and act If enough people learn to move from EOP into the Observer and Flow states there the habit will not remain at work It will change how they see one another how they talk across differences and ultimately how they choose their leadersThe best way to run any business is to set things up so that every one of your employees knows how to use time optimally by being in the Observer state and by taking those breaks during which the Flow state comes upon you all by itself Itamp8217s not just for ad creators Itamp8217s for everybodyOnce business learns this the fad will take hold Partisanity will gradually fade away because it can thrive only in EOP It will be a winwin situation because as businesses run better and partisanity fades happiness and business productivity will mount Everyone will be in more of a good mood Relationships will improve Romance will tsunami Global and cultural differences will be appreciated as interesting and respect will naturally return People in the Flow state do not pick fights nor start wars Letamp8217s elect some of themamp160Building HighPerforming TeamsAttachment ampamp growth why we hold on ampamp how we move forward This podcast explores the role attachment plays in our lives and why letting go can feel so difficult even when we know it39s necessary for growth Natalie and Bill discuss why we form attachments the purpose they serve and how learning to release what no longer aligns can create space for new opportunities deeper fulfilment and continued growthamp160 amp160 amp160 amp160From relationships careers and environments to identities expectations and memories attachment is part of what makes us human But as we evolve some of the things we39ve loved relied on or identified with may no longer support the person we39re becomingamp160 amp160 amp160 Whether you39re navigating a career change the end of a relationship or simply feeling called towards a new chapter this conversation offers a compassionate perspective on why growth often asks us to let go before we can move forward Podcast length 44 minutes Watch the VideoPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Dichotomania Is the Root Cause of Partisanity

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