“A squirrel runs around looking for nuts, hiding from foxes, listening for predators, and watching for other squirrels. The squirrel does this because that’s all it can do. All the squirrel has is a lizard brain.”

— Seth Godin

We live in an age of unparalleled knowledge. The laptop at our fingertips holds admission to more information than the Library of Congress.

We’re absolutely flooded with TV channels, data generating smartphone apps and social media.  There are more public school funds, student loan programs and college points of entry than at any time in our history. So how is it that in the midst of this bounty of brain food we seem to be getting dumber? It’s simple – much of what we’re ingesting is junk food feeding the wrong part of our brain.  

The Reason

Massive technology advances have resulted in unprecedented human advancement. It’s no small irony that the very thing freeing so many from a busted back saddles us with big tummies, empty spirits and rusty brains. At least as measured by skyrocketing obesity rates; an accelerating propensity for making empty love and deadly war; and the quantities of drugs we’re ingesting, we’ve been less successful at shrinking human suffering than rearranging it.

One cause is growing indifference to the importance of reason as a crucial ingredient in mankind’s capacity to thrive. More and more people are operating out of their animal brain versus their thinking brain. When we do take time to think, it’s usually to look for more mental junk food. What’s an ‘animal brain?’ Glad you asked.

The Reality

A down-to-earth brain diagram reveals three centers of activity – the back, middle and front. Each is crucial and each has strengths and weaknesses.

The back brain deals with the autonomic nervous system. That’s about breathing, heart rate, temperature and other non-thinking activities. The front brain deals with reason. That’s the origin of the sophisticated thinking curing polio; taking us to the moon; and otherwise securing man at the top of the food chain.

In the middle of it all is a ‘lizard-brain’ running off instinct and conditioning. That’s the part of the mind conditioned to react without deliberation.

For example, when ambushed, Vietnam’s combat soldiers were trained to do something crazy. Though reason might have said pause, run, or drop and return fire, conditioning prompted an automatic assault on the ambush. The latter illogical action was experience-proven as the safest course. Under these circumstances the lizard-brain serves a good purpose. Problems develop when we get stuck there.     

Islam’s millions of extremists are lizard-brain thinkers conditioned to run from reason.

America’s left finds most of their traction in middle-brain appeals. When the facts do not suit them, anti-police activists embrace the middle-brain as a convenient haven for misbehavior. The movie and videogame industries are remarkably successful in making whoopee with our young as they appeal to lizard-brain gustoes.

The Method

Those intentionally flying planes into buildings or invading meetings to kill cartoonists are not thinking – at least to the extent of being rational. Such people have been ‘brainwashed’ with lizard-brain rewards exchanged for the power of independent thought. The promise of 72 virgins is clearly a potent incentive.  

The left’s recruitment system is less violent, but no less dangerous. It centers on lizard brain appeals like the promise of something for nothing; morale flexibility; and accountability avoidance. Each is a stress reducer and thus appealing to lizard-brains. To the extent America’s traditional success equation of liberty, opportunity and responsibility is thought and action dependent, it’s easy to see why the left successfully seduces so many of the unwitting.

Watching TV interviews with black and white race hustlers reveals lizard brains on overdrive. Most of the thinking of these social manipulators is limited to picking out lizard-brain stored sound bites. Truth and sincerity have no role with those dedicated to the creativity of an echo. 

What we’re doing to our youth is criminal. With movies, TV, video games, hip-hop music, and other conditioning agents, we’re training children to think and behave like lizards. We’re passively ignoring social programing that says it’s OK to hate your parents; embrace violence as a solution; misuse one another as sexual playthings; play ‘time-out’ with drugs; and embrace off the labors of others. We then wonder why our children are such messes.

Those resisting the notion that these influences are capable of turning us into sociopathic robots should consider the Super Bowl. Merchants don’t casually invest 4.5 million in a thirty-second commercial. They recognize access to our lizard-brains as the quickest path to kidnapping the whole person.

Solutions

Baring a brain jarring catastrophic wake-up call; it’s too late to do much about the broader culture. Lizard-brain thinking is addictive and once that part of the mind takes charge it doesn’t gracefully let go.  

As individuals, we remain fully liberated to reach for something better. Good and noble people have always been in a minority. The demanding requirements of reason, reality, responsibility and right are rarely mainstream dedications.       

It helps to step over the simplistic limitations of ‘fight or flight.’ Our lizard-brain has other potentials including freezing, faking or functioning. Properly trained people seek the latter – functionality – through partnered front and middle-brains. This takes work, but the vistas and opportunities beat other “f” word options hands down.  

Choice and character remain life’s two great equalizers. We can’t do anything about genetic makeup, family of origin or what other people have done to us. We remain fully in control of how we respond to what happened to us. That requires higher level thinking not found in lizard-brain devotees.

Conclusions

For insights into why our world keeps getting dumber, look to a growing dedication to living out of the conditioned part of the brain. There’s nothing smart in an echo.

We’re free to join this lizard cult or not. The temptation to go with the flow is understandable. It’s easy, affirming and comfortable to be a part of the reptilian herd – right up to the moment someone decides to turn you into a handbag.… 

Conservative Tip of the Month

One of many broad misassumptions in current American culture is the notion ventilating anger helps relieve it. While it is true that anger is a poison destroying the container that holds it, attempting to get rid of the toxin by spewing over your world does more to renew than relieve. The more one practices anger, the more addictive it becomes. In this formula we find much of the reason angry protest rallies so easily drift toward destructive outcomes. Recycling anger is much more likely to poison the recycler than solve problems. Time-proven methods of healthy anger relief include forgiveness; responding versus reacting; measured verbal expression; and growing good grass to keep the anger weeds at bay. Too many social and political manipulators sell the false perception that anger ventilation is normal and productive. Their advice doesn’t work for the same reason expelling gas in an elevator doesn’t work.   

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Do you have information about a source of mischief in our community? You can safely contact us at 252-8390 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We are offering a $500 reward for information on corruption, crime, or other harms you share in confidence and we reveal in print. Bad things grow in the dark. We have a flashlight – do you have a whistle?

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Carl Mumpower is a former member of Asheville City Council.