Amygdala Rises In Iraq

Who would ever think a Muslim nation in the Mideast would have trouble maintaining democracy?

Iraqi lawmakers broke into fistfights Thursday as Baghdad plunged deep into a political crisis over how the fractured country should be governed.

The first victim of the scrum appears to have been the outspoken Sunni Speaker of Parliament Salim al Jabouri. But several lawmakers also have been calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Haider al Abadi and even President Mohammed Fuad Masum.

The three are still holding onto their posts, but lawmaker and former national security advisor Muwaffak al Rubaie told VOA their positions “are untenable.”

“Either we have general elections or we go back to parliament and choose a new president, a new speaker and prime minister,” al Rubaie said, adding, “I don’t think new elections are practical now.”

This is amygdala. The reason you don’t see this in America is the free resources and dopamine flowing freely at that upper political level. No Senator with three “Staff-Asses” on the side, a few million in a bank account, and the promise of tens, if not hundreds of millions down the road as a lobbyist is going to run down to the podium on the Senate floor and begin throwing blows over an appropriations bill. His brain is awash in dopamine and security, and that places his amygdala into a state of total stasis. That amygdala deadness is a large reason that our nation is $20 trillion in debt, and hurtling toward bankruptcy. Nobody cares about anything.

Let the resources dry up however, let the public grow enraged to the point that the threat of an anti-establishment opponent lurks around every electoral corner, and let lawmakers feel as if everything they have is about to be stolen by every young upstart who challenges their authority in public, and you will see grown men hit the floor of the Senate and begin brawling like kids in a schoolyard.

The irony is that as we hurtle toward our civilized collapse now, that return of raw emotion and amygdala functionality will herald the best chance of rebuilding our civilization and Making America Great Again. Without it, civility will be little more than an ephemeral mirage.