> When information sources were limited, we traded truth for coherence. > Trigger warning: the media was never truthful. There, I said it. To be fair, the media didn’t actively deceive the public either. ~@david_perell truth→coherence trade continues. perell.com/blog/what-the-…
Trading truth for coherence, authoritarianism, and the left hemisphere
7 tweets · March 2019 · 10 likes · 0 retweets · read on Twitter
Afaict, from my current reading of Iain McGilchrist's book The Master and his Emissary, the left hemisphere's job is maintaining a workable coherent system (and ignoring what doesn't fit). Blindspots necessary for focus. Most modern western people identify with their LH, so...
As articulated (probably inadvertently) in @Bartoven's song "Life", the left-hemisphere is caught up in what's right by its own theory, and assesses everything by that.
Bob Altemeyer has a book called The Authoritarians in which he describes patterns of thinking that sound very similar to all of this: (This screenshot is from this fascinating series on people who post on estranged parent forums. issendai.com/psychology/est…)
Altemeyer notes correlations between this "authoritarian follower" pattern and current right-wing politics. Not sure if that would hold pre-60s-counterculture-rotation (see @Meaningness) but I'm guessing broadly so inasmuch as "right-wing" = "status quo". meaningness.com/political-left…
But as the 🤯 book The Guru Papers points out, our culture has been authoritarian for a long time, and we've ALL got substantial tendencies to try to seek safety in authorities. And based on recent @divided_brain neuroscience, seems this is partially innate. So... what do?
...I haven't gotten to end of McGilchrist's book yet, so I don't know! Based on my internal practice & introspection since learning of @divided_brain model, it *seems* that the LHemisphere needs to take the RHem as authority. RHem is then open to new info, so whole brain learns.