HOW TO TALK TO A Christian

Morgaine from The-Goddess has written an article called “How to Talk to a Christian: Because We Have to, Whether We Want to or Not.” It is particularly thought-provoking. Here's a section suggesting how masterful the political Right is at manipulating the human psyche:

“Hartmann crafted a nice crash course in brain development, thus: ‘We humans, being the product of a long evolutionary process, really have three brains. And, as the Bush psy-ops folks know, politicians who win campaigns do so because they speak to all three of those brains.’

“Hartmann dissects Cheney's mastery in the campaign: When Dick Cheney recently took John Kerry's comment about sensitivity in the war on terror out of context and spun it for his audiences, he was performing a psychologically masterful manipulation of all three brains.

“Only ridicule with a subtext of fear has this power. ‘America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive,’ Cheney said, firing first the thinking brain (‘too many wars’) and then the limbic brain (‘for our wishes[/hopes/ideals]’). And then he went for the reptile brain: ‘...but not one of them was won by being sensitive.’

The comment brought an instant response of laughter - an emotional and involuntary response, as Freud pointed out, that's the result of the neocortex thinking it's moving logically along in one direction (a discussion of too many wars) and then suddenly getting derailed (‘but not one of them was won by being sensitive’) from that thought. This sudden derailment - known among comedians as the "punch line" - causes the thinking brain to be momentarily confused and triggers a response known as laughter....”

MORE >>>

I have a friend who teaches communication. Her students probably all go get jobs writing speeches for people like Dick Cheney -- because it's the Dick Cheneys who have the money to hire them.