The Lizard Brain

[Guest guest]

February 10, 2006

 

by Arianna Huffington

On Fear, Lizard Brains, and 1984

READ MORE: Iraq, Dick Cheney, 2006, New York Times,

Karl Rove, George W. Bush

 

I spent much of yesterday having people try to scare

the hell out of me. In the morning it was President

Bush. At night it was Big Brother. At times, it wasn't

easy telling them apart. Let me explain:

 

My very scary day was jump-started by the president's

chilling tale of how my hometown had narrowly escaped

a 9/11-like attack, with hijacked planes being flown

into a downtown Los Angeles skyscraper. I know, I

know: the story is old news, a four year-old plot that

we were already told about years ago, which, in fact,

some experts believe never got off the al-Qaeda

drawing board -- and which Holden picks apart. But the

president sure made it sound really, really

frightening.

 

Then, at night, I saw a preview performance of a

brilliant new production of George Orwell's 1984 --

adapted by Michael Gene Sullivan and directed by Tim

Robbins -- and was struck by the ways that Big Brother

uses fear and perpetual war to keep the citizens of

Oceania under control. And, especially, how that fear

effectively blots out memory.

 

" His memory, " writes Orwell of his rebellious hero,

" was not satisfactorily under control. " Memory

" satisfactorily under control " is a perfect

description of the mindset that allows Bush and Cheney

to repeatedly lie to the American people and get away

with it. Thanks to the constant fear-mongering. Again

and again. ('Last throes'? who remembers anything

about 'last throes'?)

 

Orwell also shows how a frightened people will look to

the strongest and most confident to save and protect

them. As Goldstein says in the play: " Even the

humblest, most industrious citizen is expected to be

an ignorant fanatic, whose prevailing moods are fear,

hatred, adulation, and triumph, regardless of his own

suffering. In other words, the mentality appropriate

to a state of war. And being at war, and therefore in

danger, makes the handing over of all power to a small

caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of

survival. "

 

I knew Karl Rove was a student of history, but

apparently he's a student of literature, too.

 

The Big Brothers in the Bush White House bang the

fear-gong like clockwork. Early in the week, the

administration took some hits on its NSA warrantless

wiretapping program, with even Republicans like Sen.

Arlen Specter and Rep. Heather Wilson raising doubts.

And before the week was out, there was the president,

offering up details of shoe bombs and " young men from

Southeast Asia " meeting with Osama bin Laden and

preparing to attack L.A. (In 1984, the unseen enemy

keeps shifting from " Eurasia " to " Eastasia " and back

again).

 

The president didn't directly link the disruption of

the attack with the NSA wiretapping but, as noted by

the New York Times, Frances Townsend, his

counterterrorism adviser, " did not rule out the

program as a factor in discovering the plan. " How very

vague of her.

 

Listening to Bush's speech, I kept flashing on

comedian Kevin Nealon's classic Subliminal Message Guy

character: " Since [9/11] we've taken decisive action

(no time for FISA) to protect our citizens against new

dangers (old ones too). We're hunting down terrorists

(Osama who?) using every element of our national power

(even illegal elements) -- military (mission

accomplished), intelligence (warrantless wiretapping),

law enforcement (more wiretapping)... When an American

president says something, he better mean what he said

(except for all the times he doesn't). "

 

Scaring the bejeezus out of us any time the going gets

tough is simple, crude -- and has worked like a charm

for the Bushies. I'm guessing that they're saving a

fresh elevation of the terror alert status until

closer to November.

 

Watching my personal " Fear Factor " double feature --

Bush and Big Brother -- reminded me of a conversation

I had during the 2004 campaign with Dr. Daniel Siegel,

a Harvard-trained psychiatrist whose book Mindsight

explores the physiological workings of the brain. He

explained that the Bush campaign's unrelenting

fear-mongering had left voters " shrouded in a 'fog of

fear,' " reacting not with their linear, logical left

brain but with their lizard, more emotional right

brain.

 

Deep in the brain lies the amygdala, an almond-sized

region that generates fear. When this fear state is

activated, the amygdala springs into action. Before

you are even consciously aware that you are afraid,

your lizard brain responds by clicking into survival

mode. No time to assess the situation, no time to look

at the facts, just fight, flight or freeze. Fear

paralyzes our reasoning and literally makes it

impossible to think straight. Instead, we search for

emotional, nonverbal cues from others that will make

us feel safe and secure.

 

This is precisely why Rove wants to paint Democrats as

having " a pre-9/11 worldview " which, by implication,

makes them unwilling to go the extra -- even illegal

-- mile to keep America safe.

 

The only way to break through this " fog of fear " is to

keep shining a light on this cynical strategy, like

Hillary Clinton did the other day at the UAW

convention: " If you're paying attention, you saw two

weeks ago, Karl Rove, in a room like this, telling the

Republican National Committee, 'Here's your game plan,

folks. Here's how we're going to win. We're going to

win by getting everybody scared again.... We're going

to keep playing the fear card.' "

 

Some in the mainstream media are doing the same. The

headline on the jump page of the Los Angeles Times

story on Bush's speech reads, " Critics Question Timing

of Disclosures About Plot. " And the New York Times'

story on it offered a similarly dubious tone: " Mr.

Bush's speech came at a time when Republicans are

intent on establishing their record on national

security as the pre-eminent issue in the 2006 midterm

elections, and when the president is facing questions

from members of both parties about a secret

eavesdropping program that he describes as pivotal to

the war on terrorism. "

 

Maybe even the MSM's lizard brains are getting wise to

the White House's scare tactics. And, just maybe,

we're about to enter a new era where our collective

memory is no longer " satisfactorily under control. "