You are Always Welcome at William's!
Hello everybody…
In this election it seems everybody is voting for a hero. Biden is the superhero who will save us from Trump. Trump is the hero who will save us from Biden. There was no third party presence. You might say that the third parties rightly stayed away, because this election was so important. It was literally Good vs Evil.
Yet it is worth asking: How did it come to be that each side believes their candidate is an actual superhero, and the other side is actually evil?
In Ivan Pavlov's terrifying book Conditioned Reflexes, he writes, regarding humans: "... suggestion as a stimulus is brief, isolated and complete, and therefore vigorous.... The fact that it is possible to suggest to a hypnotized subject almost anything, however little it may correspond to the physical reality, and to evoke a reaction in opposition to the actual reality... [indicates] that weak stimuli have a greater effect than strong ones." When he says weak stimuli he means the constant repetition of an image and sound or feeling, a mix of visual and aural stimuli.
Pavlov goes on to say that it is possible, through this method of constant suggestion, to get humans to react to a sweet drink as if it is bitter. Their face will pucker, they will say the drink is sour. It is a psychological shift. Dogs can experience something similar. There are many issues with Pavlov, and also the notion of hypnosis. So many issues and such sloppy science that it is justifiable to ignore Pavlov altogether.
However let me point out that there are millions of people in the US who, when shown an image of Hillary Clinton, will respond that they hate her. The same goes with Nancy Pelosi, with Mitch McConnell, with Donald Trump. There are millions of people who, when shown images of any celebrity politician, will say they hate them, and will often have signs of physiological change--elevated voice, red cheeks, racing heart. When asked for a reason why, the intellectual answer given almost always sounds forced, as if it was thought of as a way to justify the emotion.
I mention Pavlov here because one can turn on MSNBC and Fox News and see images of Trump, Biden, Harris, which are visual stimuli, and hear commentary that each is evil, which is aural stimuli. This sequence of stimuli, done every day, although very slight as an individual dose, is essentially Pavlovian conditioning.
The states of suggestion that the eminent Dr Pavlov writes about are not permanent. They disperse. Humans eventually wake up. However our psychology can be constantly goaded into disreality, into false thinking. And as we get into false thinking more and more often, doing so gets easier and easier.
What are your thoughts? Are we being conditioned?
The great Dr Freud might agree, but would also point out that our feelings for politicians are often rooted in our feelings about our parents. However, as I try to keep these emails under 800 words, that topic will have to wait.
Let me end by saying coffee, baked goods, conversation, hospitality... these have been nourishing people for centuries. I believe there is no damage the internet and television can do that coffee, a pastry, and genuine warmth cannot undo.
You are always welcome at William's.
Very best wishes from your friend, William