[X Acto] The lamenting of frightened old men. Fear is the killer of minds
[Andrew] "Fear is the killer of minds" ... In some sense yes, I agree. But fear is also the preserver of bodies. Fear is biological quality. Could it be that the chemistry of fear ( adrenaline ) anesthetizes the cerebral cortex to some degree? The chemistry of Schlitz is known to posses such properties. Any chemists here? [Krimel] I think Ron is referring to a mantra of the Bene Gesserit. They like everyone from Homer to Eckman have understood that fear is physiology. Fear is mammalian sympathetic arousal, flight or fight. It reduces the house edge. Gives you a little edge. The sympathetic half of the autonomic nervous system revs us up. It directs blood flow to the muscles, speeds up the heart and lungs, shuts down digestion and healing. Like diverting power to the warp engines by cutting power to the shields. Pupils dilate to take in more light. There are lots of changes that result from fear. Fear does improve the odds for life forms higher than lizards but sometime that edge is not enough to beat house. That, I believe, is what the Bene Gesserit mean. A Human Being has a Mind that can transcend fear and instinct. Mind gives us the ability to use conceptual structures. It allows the past to give us an edge against the house. The more dynamic the situation becomes, the more difficult it is for Mind of defend itself from Fear. After all Fear is the emotion of last resort, intellect's arch-nemesis. Fear can kill the Mind. The Bene Gesserit use their manta to re-Mind themselves of this. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
