Jay Hanson wrote:
[snip]
> You are right Chris, it's ALL about sex and power with the
> human brain serving as press agent:
> ----
> [From The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life
> (Vintage Books). Copyright 1994 by Robert Wright.]
>
> Excerpt from CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
> DECEPTION AND SELF-DECEPTION
>
> "But a famous series of experiments shows (in a quite different
> context) how oblivious the conscious mind can be to its real
> motivation, and how busily it sets about justifying the products
> of that motivation.
[snip]
> "When it comes time for the subject to justify his behavior,
> the left brain passes from professed ignorance into unknowing
> dishonesty. One example: the command 'Walk' is sent to a man's
> right brain, and he complies. When asked where he's going, his
> left brain, not privy to the real reason, comes up with another
> one: he's going to get a soda, he says, convinced. Another
> example: a nude image is flashed to the right brain of a woman,
> who then lets loose an embarrassed laugh. Asked what's so funny,
> she gives an answer that's less racy than the truth.
>
> "Michael Gazzaniga, who conducted some of the split-brain
> experiments, has said that language is merely the 'press agent'
> for other parts of the mind; it justifies whatever acts they
> induce, convincing the world that the actor is a reasonable,
> rational, upstanding person.
[snip]
> Jay
The foregoing may be true, but if it is, it
asserts it is not true but only a "rationalization",
and thereby loses all its argumentative force, so that,
for purposes of knowledge (science, etc.)
it might just as well not have been said at allm, and
a dog's barking could substitute for it.
Anyone who asserts that assertion can be "explained"
and its meaningfulness undercut by any kind of *causation*
is indeed treding on very thin ice. Whether or not
(s)he shall succeed in crossing over to the other side
(to where? to oblivion?) is surely an interesting
exercise to watch from the at least trepidantly secure
shore of trying to shore up the meaningfulness of
meaning (which said thin-icer is busy trying to under-
mine...). In any case, to *blithely* assert
this kind of hare-brained non-sense is an excellent
example of what it itself talks about: self-delusion.
However! There is a way out: If the person
applies his or her meaning-destroying arguments
only to *other persons* and not to him/herself and
his/her cronies, then the *only* damage is to
bring us to the kind of world we already live in, in
which bosses treat each other as persons who
engage in meaningful discourse, while they treat
workers as *objects of discourse*, to be managed
and manipulated like other raw material in the
physical universe. Of course, I have yet to
hear of a boss who was willing to talk
straightforwardly about this Habermasean (et al.)
distinction between communication aimed at
mutual understanding and strategic communication,
but why should they, since it would be
embarrassing for them to admit they
are dehumanizing the workers. (The same
argument applies to teachers and students, and
other such asymmetrical power relations).
So, friends, get out your saws and scalpels, and go
looking for your left and right brains (OUR OWN,
not some other poor schmuck's!!!), and maybe then
you'll stop talking about right brains and left
brains, because you'll destroy YOUR "self" (not
some other poor schmuck's!!!) in the process.
("Beware, O man, thy grievous fall" is the title
of a Bach Chorale Prelude which was the "theme
song" for Carl Dreyer's film "Joan of Arc").
--
Yours in the unfashionable
belief that words (at least my own,
and, perhaps, yours...) have meaning, but
that this condition is *very fragile and
subject to being lost at any moment if
we've not very care-ful*....
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
-------------------------------------------------------
<![%THINK;[SGML]]> Visit my website: http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
