The reptilian brain in us fires us with responses to fight against those who are different from us. It forces us with an unconscious urge to conquer, destroy and kill. This is, primarily, due to the deep-seated fear we have of the other; we are afraid of the difference they present.
A FRANCIS OFM
The Totalitarian Monoculturalism
A ‘monoculture’ worldview that promotes flagrant standardisation and binary thinking, on any domain of life, is the pivotal ideology of totalitarian regimes. An exaggerated devotion to nationalism, often in a pseudo sense than real, is imposed on citizens as a sacred obligation. Steve Allen, the comedian and writer, called it as ‘institutionalised patriotism’. Individuals who fail to embrace these treacherously orchestrated untruthful political designs, are labeled as ‘antinational’, a newer version for the old-world term, ‘subversive’. Lynching, riots and even unjust legislations are among the commonly practiced mechanisms to silence, if not to exterminate those who dare to challenge these vicious ideologies. Individual freedom, constitutional privileges, and human rights are far too often forced down the drain in the broad daylight, just like the ‘propagandists intruding into our kitchens and inspecting what we cook and what we eat!’
History, nonetheless, is the proof and promise that such politics of outright untruth which is potential to topple great democracies into bloody battlefronts of ‘us’ and ‘them’, and redefine one group as ‘masters’ and the other as ‘slaves’, ‘refugees’ and ‘alien’ immigrants, will not thrive, forever. The pathetic crumbling of the Hitlerian rhetoric of racial cleansing and eugenics that ran counter to our peaceful human cohabitation, is a good example of it.
History always presents accurate summations of human actions, nothing more and nothing less! Hopefully, our present-day totalitarians, who engage in constructing vicious forms of ‘monoculture’ around the globe, read history!
Getting Beyond our Reptilian Brain
We humans are not wired to live with a ‘monoculture’ mindset that eliminates the difference we encounter around us. Studies suggest that the reptilian brain in us fires us with responses to fight against those who are different from us. It forces us with an unconscious urge to conquer, destroy and kill. This is, primarily, due to the deep-seated fear we have of the other; we are afraid of the difference they present. As long as we live in the domain of our reptilian dictates, we are risking the opportunity for fulfilment of our human potential and holistic growth. The cutting-edge findings in neuroscience and social psychology inform us that our effort to connect with the other who is different from us, and befriend our fear of them is greatly beneficial to us because it makes us grow in resilience, vitality and vigour. Our acceptance of their difference fosters our physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and relational strengths. The wellbeing of a person on all these levels is what makes a person fully human, and fully alive. This is developmental psychology, and not an ideological ad-lib!
If this is so, the next time, when we are tempted to think that our belief, opinion, race, religion, gender, sex and identity is superior to those who live around us, be sure to pause and remind ourselves of two essential life lessons: one, we are being enslaved by our reptilian brain and two, we are, in fact, jeopardizing our opportunity to live fully human and fully alive!
Do we have a different option in such moments? Of course, we do! We could recourse to a couple of different choices, if we are intentional. We could focus on activating our ‘mammalian’ brain that is responsible for thinking with emotions, such as, feeling with the other rather than assuming that ‘the other is an enemy’. Compassion, forgiveness, love, appreciation etc., are regenerated in us when we activate our mammalian brain. Another choice we can make is to focus on stimulating our neocortex, the part of our brain which is responsible for thinking with rationality. Thinking rationally is one of the greatest human gifts and “without it we wouldn’t have Beethoven’s sonata’s, democratic forms of government, the novels of Charles Dickens or a cure for polio”, says Psychologist Nick Wignall.
The prime minister and many women of New Zeeland are the examples of this option humans are capable of making. In her response of solidarity with the victims of Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minster of the country appeared in public meetings with a black headscarf, the ‘hijab’. ‘Time Magazine’ reported that her radical example became a mass movement, ‘Headscarf for Harmony’, among women and children, who posted their photos with headscarves. Obviously, these individuals went above and beyond the dictates of reptilian brains, and the confines of a ‘monoculture’ mindset.
The process of thinking with emotion, and feeling the thought could integrate more of our ‘conscious self’ into our pursuit of a behavioural difference we want to make, particularly when we are faced with the fear of the other. This, obviously, shapes a reflective response that nurtures healing than being fired by an unconscious ‘acting out’ of instincts and impulses which only aggravates our existing tendencies for polarization.
Are we reminded of the practice of yoga, here? May be a different kind of yoga - yoga for the heart, the mind, and for the spirit!
Embracing Our Diversity
More than ever before in the human evolutionary history, we have been compelled today to confront the complexity of diversity that we humans are constituted with, both, intrinsically and extrinsically. Our confrontation of the inherent diversities of life, has brought in, to some extent at least, transformative outcomes to our living in peace. Look at the fluidity people uphold while speaking about their understanding of masculinity and femininity these days; or the degree of caution we observe in avoiding the potential insinuation of a traditional straight-jacketed attribution to masculine and feminine characteristics. We today speak so comfortably about maternal men and paternal women, a type of conversation which was not too common in the past! Deviating from the fragmented straight-line thinking of the colonial past, and the caste-based society that taught us the most abominable principle of life, “the powerful rule the powerless”, we today know that no race, sex, gender, country, culture, caste or religion is superior to others. The reverse feeling is attributed to a phobic state of the mind.
This shift, in my view, is a watershed understanding of our time, which will continue to impact the world with ripple effect of the restoration of justice, freedom and equality in humanity’s onward journey.
Finally, to all totalitarians, who continue committing genocide, riot and hate speech in the name of politics, religion, nationalism, race, language or ideologies of any kind; here is an apt quote for your daily reflection and practice, from an author and activist, Satish Kumar, who undertook a peace walk from New Delhi to Moscow, Paris, London and Washington D.C., “Embracing radical pluralism is the imperative of our time.”
∎
