When Repubs are interviewed by the media, like Sarah Palin last night, whether they are candidates or surrogates, they throw truth and ethics to the wind and say whatever will work to meet their goal. What was up to them yesterday can be down today and they do it without a blink or indication that they are lying or contradicting themselves.
Dems watching this see it as mindblowing and totally antithetical to the way they think. What accounts for this diametrically opposed thinking by "liberals" and "conservatives?"
What confuses Dems who think from the perspective of a compassionate, “let’s work together and not hurt each other” mind when viewing the hypocritical actions of those with authoritarian, “I must win even if others have to get hurt” minds, is why the latter seem to be able to flip-flop, lie, and reverse think whenever advantageous in the blink of an eye.
Sarah Palin said on her ABC interview she wouldn’t blink if we have to use military force and Dems thought, you better blink many times before you launch the military because there is an outcome in a conflict that results in everyone losing.
Authoritarian minds look at a conflict with only two outcomes, either I win or I lose. They don’t seem to realize that not only could we both lose, we could also work together so that we could both win.
The authoritarian mind comes from male thinking and the compassionate mind from female thinking.
Not only are male brains wired to see things from a scientific, logical view, they also have the kind of brain that provides less emotional and social skills than the female brain. The man was the hunter and survived with a kill or be killed mindset. The man gets back to the hut, slams the boar on the dirt floor and says to the woman, “I’ve done my job now you do everything else.”
Female brains are wired from the perspective of having to nurture life, provide all the support to sustain the family and try to find a means to live with the brute and keep everything together. They see that as the only way for everyone to survive.
What I see from females who support the Repub view is women who were raised by male dominance and believe they need to have authoritarian figures, whether male or female, to feel safe. What I see from the Dem view are men, including myself, who want to stand tall as an individual, dependent on neither the father nor mother. Female Dems have also broken away from the strict father and want complete independence. Both male and female don't care about the gender of the leader, just how well they can inspire us to work together.
I realize I am doing a great deal of generalizing, and there are Repubs and Dems who are somewhere in the middle, and independents who don't want to align themselves with a party philosophy. If independents and Dems want to understand why Repubs do what they do, they have to understand why Repubs think the way they think.
At the top of my blog, I put, "Truth Retried, Not Retired," and underneath the phrase, How you think doesn’t just affect your life; it is your life.
Truth to Dems is critical for all of us to treat each other fairly. Truth to Repubs, is malleable as long as I can win and be better off even if that means others won't be. They rationalize, "If I become better off, it is because I am stronger and more determined or, if not better off, others are to blame and when I find the right leader, I will do better."
Authoritarian minds believe that they are weak when they let uncertainty enter their minds, because that would free up emotions long time suppressed, and that could cause me to have to examine my conscience and past actions. So Repubs with this mindset, kick in their rationalization skills and the moment passes safely. The rationalization is, when I win I get my safe world and if I lose, my world starts spinning and I will feel worthless.
This thinking has caused wars, suffering and death. Sure there come times when there is no choice, but to fight to survive. Authoritarian minds find far too many of these times, often when no real threat exists. They become their and our worst enemy.
Compassionate minds are blogging all over saying, "I have seen the enemy and the enemy is us." Authoritrian minds are blogging, "the enemy is the people who want to scare me to death by having to face the truth."
If you have a compassionate mind, I hope you are doing all you can to elect Obama. He does possess the fierce desire to win, but he was raised by a single mother who taught and showed him how to have compassion for others even when they show no compassion for you.He also learned that by facing a racist society as half white and half black.
If Obama wins and is to fulfill his desire for unity, he needs to find some conflicted authoritarians who do possess compassion like Chuck Hagel, who can find a way for strong authoritarians to feel safe and decide to work together for the good of all.
There is no time left for all of us to seek a win-win outcome, not only for America, but also for the world.
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Comments
Given McCain's age and health, people know there is a higher than normal probability of a Palin presidency, if this ticket is elected.
She could not articulate the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military action when asked by Charles Gibson. When pressed she muttered something about the inherent right of nations to self-defense. On top of that, she saber-rattled, bravely, toward the Russians and said she wouldn't blink when it came to using force.
This is not thought; this is reaction only, a performance presented under careful coaching, though it was revealing that she didn't at all seem ready for the question on the doctrine.
For her to say such things, as a candidate for national office - this office - is irresponsible, just as it was irresponsible for John McCain to nominate her in the first place.
I say leave aside everything with her except the fact that she's talking, without any knowledge or training whatsoever, about issues of war and peace, at a time when the United States is fighting hot wars on two fronts, with, it seems, a third front now opening up (Pakistan); at a time when major US fleet operations (two carrier battle groups) are operating in the Persian Gulf with the intent to pressure Iran, if not invade or bomb - and all of this at a time when, because of the pressure of combat operations over seven years now, the army of the United States is stretched to the limit with little or no room to maneuver, should even one more major crisis requiring hardened, rested combat troops erupt.
This is why the US can do little about the Georgia problem.
Yet, Gov. Palin says she wouldn't blink when it comes to using military force. With what, governor?
Money talks; bullshit walks.
She doesn't know what she's talking about and should not be in the position she's in.
First of all, I would like to point out that I do not disagree with the general point of your post, that the style of thinking long associated with males plays a major role in the problems facing us today.
I'm only uncomfortable with your use of bio-determinism to illustrate this point. While you are absolutely right in pointing to scientific evidence that the typical female brain is wired differently than the typical male brain, extrapolating the logical male brain to authoritarianism I think shortchanges the male. And extrapolating the communicative female brain to compassion I think gives us females too much credit.
In addition, there's a great deal of overlap in the male-female brain bell curve. For example, I took a test on the BBC website the other day and discovered that I had a "male" brain. Who knew? What's it doing in my cranium, I wonder, and why did it let me get so angry the other night when my boyfriend was so late for dinner I had to break out the tupperware and put everything into the refrigerator? LOL.
Basically, I think socialization plays a far greater role in this than how our brains are wired. And even if it's 50/50, I think we should focus on the difference we can make. Which you do quite well in your essay, btw.
This is still a wonderful essay. I'm sorry if my point is tangential. I'm a very tangential person. I wonder if that's a male or female brain trait ;) My handle should be "offtopic"
And imagine, she has a son who is heading to Kuwait to help with the Iraq war and she doesn't know that Bush changed our national strategy so he could go after the Iraq oil through the excuse of a preemptive doctrine. A doctrine that is actually preventative not preemptive. Because the Busheviks knew that Iraq presented no imminent or even real threat.
If she were elected, she will just be another puppet to the neoncons and their violence first strategy and the continuance of the destruction of our country, one that I proudly served for 28 years.
Your point is not tangental. For a long time, I believed that nurture was much more dominant than nature. The more brain research and other information has come out, I am now down to 50-50. I still believe that socialization tops type of brain. I know I have a male brain, though not from a scientific basis, so maybe I should take that same test, but from my first instincts.
While doing a class paper six years ago, it suddenly dawned on me why I got along so well with women and even when I went to a battered woman's shelter for seven years to teach parenting, the women did not feel threatened and trusted me very quickly.
It's because I had a twin sister and was socialized as a female at the same time she was. So even if I have a male brain, I have thought differently from a very early age than my male peers. Fortunately, the changes that have come about in our society means that I am not so much of an oddball as I used to be.
Your point is not tangental. For a long time, I believed that nurture was much more dominant than nature. The more brain research and other information has come out, I am now down to 50-50. I still believe that socialization tops type of brain. I know I have a male brain, though not from a scientific basis, so maybe I should take that same test, but from my first instincts.
While doing a class paper six years ago, it suddenly dawned on me why I got along so well with women and even when I went to a battered woman's shelter for seven years to teach parenting, the women did not feel threatened and trusted me very quickly.
It's because I had a twin sister and was socialized as a female at the same time she was. So even if I have a male brain, I have thought differently from a very early age than my male peers. Fortunately, the changes that have come about in our society means that I am not so much of an oddball as I used to be.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml