We have spoken of Limbic hijack at the personal level, but haven't
broached an analogy of this with the US, Western World, and Global
"superorganism" which I feel (being a metaphorist) is an apt one.
While I have not identified precisely as liberal or progressive in my
life, I have it seems been increasingly aligned with their values and
more counter-aligned with the *methods* if not the values of the
conservative movements.
Over the past few years I have become acutely aware of my own limbic and
sympathetic/parasympathetic systems and how hey might get dysregulated
based on how I A) engage in the world; and B) how I introspect and
self-manage.
I feel that Trumpism brought us an acute version of LImbic hijack (both
of his syncophants and those who rally against him)... if there is
genius in his actions/strategy it might be this... I have a cousin whose
husband (they are gay) came up in the NYC real-estate scene and he
described Trump right away this way... that his "disruptor" status was
to gen up controversy that he could exploit in his real-estate deals...
etc... and predicted roughly what unfolded since then.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is highly bimodal but pretty well covers the
span... love him or hate him, and I attribute that to this... he makes
jacks up the adrenals every chance he gets.
I wanted to believe that post J6 his movement had hit significant
adrenal fatigue, but somehow he managed to double down and trigger a
"second wind" particularly among his "angry white man" crowd. I think
that the end of the socio-economic distruption he caused (followed by
the same from COVID) actually lead to a "rest state" for most of us,
including his followers who sadly then began to forget what a wanker he
had become (always was?).
Hope springs infernal for me, so Kamala's own hijack, promoting
something like oxytocin over cortisol for many is a win win. Those who
are exhausted from hating/fearing Trump now have something to switch
away from and those who are getting spun up *against* Kamala are just
fatiguing their already fatigued adrenals... even the Progressives who
want to hate on Kamala (for lots of vaguely ok reasons) are likely
exhausting their chemistries of resentment (for better or worse).
I also wonder at whether the history of civilization or at least our
last 250 years of this "grand experiment" have not been a fluctuation
between these two dominant modes (fight/flight, rest/relax) with one
naturally giving over to the other?
Mumble,
- Steve
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