Sounds Reasonable

Dogs have masters and cats have slaves. Too true. And Boo is being quite demanding this morning; wanting in, out, and then in again. All in the space of just a few minutes. Does she already know that she’s heading off to the Cat Hilton Garden Inn this afternoon? For an extended stay while we go to Disneyland? Nah. She would be hiding out if she knew that.

And I’m into the first chapter of The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore. This chapter, titled The Politics of Fear, explores how the mind works when under stress and how that affects a society where it’s important to be engaged in the democratic process. It’s also another assault on television, but from a scientific point of view. Some of the information was new to me, but other was not… “People who watch television news routinely have the impression that the cities where they live are far more dangerous than they are.” That’s something I have been saying for a long time. I was happy to find some scientific basis for my belief. He points out that images create far more fear than words can. Of course we already know that. “A picture is worth a thousand words” etc, etc. What isn’t as well known is the fact that fear ‘always’ overcomes reason. Humans are hard wired this way. It’s what helps us to stay alive. We don’t want to be standing around ‘reasoning’ when danger threatens. Well, images can threaten just as well as the real thing. And reason goes out the window.

He writes of Barry Glassner, a professor of sociology at USC, who argues “…that there are three techniques that together make up “fearmongering”; repetition, making the irregular seem regular, and misdirection. By using these narrative tools, anyone with a loud platform can ratchet up public anxieties and fears, distorting public discourse and reason.”

I hate to point out the obvious, but those techniques are the ‘tools of their trade’ for the current administration. To be fair, I should also include politicians in general. These tools work to get votes when you don’t want people using reason.