Hemispheres and Sacrifice

A friend of mine recently proclaimed that she is a Democrat, and also mentioned that, while she was still trying to investigate and learn politics (understanding that it does affect us, not because she wanted to start a political career) she pretty much responded to things emotionally.

To my observation, the two are somewhat intertwined. Whether or not it's right-hemisphere vs. left-hemisphere of the brain, it does seem that there is often a struggle between emotion and reason. This does not mean that Republicans don't fly off the handle and get emotional about their opinions, nor that Democrats refuse to reason out their arguments, but merely as a general statement, liberal solutions appear to be based on emotion while conservative solutions appear to be based on reason.

Classify it as cold logic or far-thinking, the difference is that with reason you actually get a solution, while with emotion you get only a fix. There may be some pun in that, as emotional solutions are often designed to give emotional stimulation, be it assuaging guilt, happiness high, or some flavor in-between. They are often short-term, not intentionally but accidentally. Some emotional solutions turn out to be the right ones, but usually by chance.

Modern politics, though there have been a very few other examples in history, gives "power" to a great number of people. We all have a voice through our vote, and through a few other very limited opportunities (which we often avoid, such as Jury Duty). The problem is that being informed on political issues is basically a full-time job. Those of us who have not chosen a career in or around politics don't want to spend that kind of effort remaining informed. We would much rather focus on what makes us happy or what is our breadwinning career.

Unfortunately, this created a fertile ground for manipulation. We just want to be ourselves, living our lives in a way that is stimulating to us. We want the issues, when it comes up to our need to affect them through our vote, laid out simply and clearly.

Enter the bad politician. While good politicians will attempt to do just what we want, the bad politician is in the game like the stereotyped evil business tycoon - they want money and power and everything that goes with it. They know that, if they spend the time, money, and effort on manipulating the facts (or creating outright illusions) they can make their answer seem simple and clear. It may even be simple and clear, but in all likelihood it is not what we thought we were getting. We happily go into the voting booth, vote for something, and find out later (if it comes up at all) that we have actually voted against common sense and an easy, effective solution.

Emotional manipulation has a much higher success rate and requires much less effort than manipulation of logic. If you're asking people to feel, they act emotionally, impulsively. If you ask people to think, they may just do it and reason things out for themselves.

Unfortunately the solution is not easy. You have to start by trusting yourself - trust your instincts, not your emotions. The line is often blurry (and I believe it is made blurry intentionally). Follow common sense. Then you have to take it to the next level. Start with your instincts, but if you feel there is something hidden, something that doesn't make sense or match up, you have to spend a little time and effort either thinking things through to their logical conclusion, or researching the issue further. It takes an informed public, which takes time away from the public - time the public doesn't want to sacrifice, and doesn't feel it should.

The fact is, we live in a republic democracy, and that means we have signed on to sacrifice some of our time to the running of our country. We do not sacrifice as much time (nor get compensated for it) as politicians or those who work in and around politics, but we must still do it. It is our responsibility, part of the price for being a citizen of this country. Eliminate this sacrifice, and the manipulators will reshape your government so that you not only don't have to sacrifice your time, you are no longer allowed to. The decisions will be made for you.