Today’s Post
Last week we explored what goes on in our ‘thinking system’ as external stimuli is processed by the ‘lower brains’, stimulating the neocortex faster than it can examine and evaluate the external stimuli to decide on a reaction. We also saw how these stimuli manifest themselves in the form of ‘messenger chemicals’ or ‘neurotransmitters’ sent to the neocortex, many of which are experienced by the neocortex as ‘pleasurable’.
This pleasurable response to a negative stimuli is captured in our term for it, ‘indignation’. When we disapprove of the actions of others, for example, we can feel good about it.
This week we will take a look at how this natural condition, known to thinkers for ages, can metastasize to new proportions in the milieu of the rapid, ubiquitous and near universal world of the internet.
The Danger of Indignation Today
What’s different about such a common condition today, and how can it be seen as possibly undermining the continuation of human evolution?
David Brin, author and social critic, notes the “rising ideological divisions that are becoming more prevalent today, even to the point of “culture wars”, that makes it increasingly difficult to form coalitions to solve problems”. Today it seems that fewer groups seem capable of negotiating peaceful consensus solutions to problems. Such an impasse is often driven by the irate stubbornness of a few vigorous leaders, especially if they are armed with the stamina and dedication of indignation, knowing, in Brin’s words,
“.. with subjective certainty, that (they) are right and (their) opponents are deeply, despicably wrong.”
Last week we saw how the internet, with its various forms of social media, not only act as an amplifier for beliefs and assertions, but as a positive feedback mechanism which can enhance and reinforce biases, negativity and pessimism.
What’s involved in getting to this deeply dogmatic, self-centered and troubling state of mind?
Brin calls attention to studies that investigate reinforcement processes in the human brain, especially those involving dopamine and other messenger chemicals that are active in producing pleasure responses, such as those at the Behavioral Neuroscience Program State University of New York at Buffalo. He refers to this physiology as “chemically-mediated states of arousal that self-reinforce patterns of behavior”.
Such self-induced arousal can be seen as “self-doping”, in which individuals have the power to trigger the release of psychoactive chemicals simply by entering into certain types of consciousness. Typical types of such arousal include anger, or more specifically, ‘indignation’.
When such self-induced behavior becomes frequent it can become habitual, even to the point of addiction.
Such ‘self- doping’ of course is not limited to indignation. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, using MRI, have examined the brain activity that occurs when volunteers won games of chance, and found that responses were very similar to those responding to cocaine. Evidently, gambling produces a pleasant stimulus similar to cocaine.
Simple activation of brain reward systems does not necessarily constitute addiction. We do this every time we hold our love ones, hear beautiful music, or even find the word which satisfies the crossword clue. Those who practice meditation, also a self-induced state, also report the pleasure of entering into a meditative state.
Rather, the extreme control of behavior—exemplified by a deterioration in the ability of normal rewards to govern behavior (termed ‘motivational toxicity’)—is the distinguishing feature of an addiction.
Motivational toxicity is apparent when rewards which are normally effective in influencing behavior lose their ability to motivate. This is typically seen in drug addicts when they neglect formerly potent rewards such as career, relationships and sex, and focus their behavior on the acquisition and ingestion of drugs.
So it appears possible to habitually pursue drug-like reinforcement cycles — either for pleasure or through cycles of withdrawal and insatiability that mimic addiction — purely as a function of entering an addictive frame of mind. Such pursuit requires no mental discipline (such as does the practice of meditation) and produces much stronger sensation. A sense of righteous outrage can feel so intense and delicious that those caught up in this emotional whirlpool actively seek to return to it, again and again. It is not necessarily associated with one political outlook or another, as it seems to be a trait that crosses all boundaries of ideology.
Since it undermines our ability to empathize with opponents, accept criticism, or negotiate practical solutions to problems, it undermines the mature discourse necessary to a healthy society. Further, it skews how the world is experienced. While the torrent of news today, and its incessant reliance on ‘click-bait’ content promote a sense of pessimism, motivational toxicity takes this level of pessimism to the point that the positive trends such as reported by Johan Norberg can not only be ignored, they must be seen as insidious ‘fake news’ designed to lull us into a untrustworthy sense of security. Such an enhanced and reinforced pessimism increases the paranoia in which long-standing and successful social and political norms are no longer to be trusted. In a society in which such pessimism prevails, the structure of democracy will not survive.
The problem with chronic dopamine release is not just the danger it poses to society at large. As the cycle increases, brain receptors become desensitized and continued self-doping bring less pleasure. As with any psychotropic drug, regular release of dopamine will in turn result in a craving for a larger release to feel the same ‘high’. When this happens, the only way to achieve the high is to increase the rage and act out more; either verbally or violently. This is how anger addiction is born.
As we saw last week, this cycle is further reinforced by the feedback power of the internet. This sort of dopamine response is induced by the many ‘clickbait’ posts found on social media, and as the need for more production of it increases, the internet gladly ups the volume and content of negative and indignation-worthy content to accommodate. At the same time, the skill of using the neocortex to modulate and minimize the stimulation is eroded. The person becomes less and less capable of objective evaluation of the increasingly indignation-inducing posts.
The Next Post
This week we took a closer look at how anger, and its everyday manifestation of indignation can metastasize to new proportions in the mileu of the rapid, ubiquitous and near universal world of the internet, and how this can constitute new dangers to both personal and societal evolution.
Next week we will look into how this natural and common phenomena can turn into practices which can jeopardize our continuing evolution.