Breitbart On The Patheity Of Solidarity

Breitbart sees it too:

Teddy bears, tears, candles, cartoons, murals, mosaics, flowers, flags, projections, hashtags, balloons, wreaths, lights, vigils, scarves, and more. These are the best solutions the Western world seems to come up with every few months when we are slammed by another Islamist terrorist attack. We are our own sickness.

Since the world learned of the dozens dead, hundreds injured, and hundreds of thousands affected by Monday’s attack on the NATO and European Union capital, we have seen an outpouring of what is commonly known as “solidarity”.

This word – most commonly associated with hard-left politics, trades union activism, socialism, and poseur indie rock bands – has come to mean very little in reality. In effect, “standing in solidarity” with someone now means that you have observed the situation, changed your Facebook profile picture accordingly, and patted yourself on the back.

This is the problem. Amygdalae see a bifurcated world. There is harshness, but there is also utopia. People still feel they can live in utopia, escape to utopia, and the harshness is therefore escapable.

In an amygdala experiment, animals were exposed to low level shocks to their feet. If the shocks were applied briefly, and then removed, then applied briefly a little while later, and then removed again, and that cycle was continued, the animals became increasingly neurotic and anxiety prone. When the shocks were applied constantly, the animals spent a short period anxious and bothered, but after a set period, they adapted to the stress, accepted the unpleasantness as a normal baseline, and accepted the shocks, exhibiting far less anxiety.

At present terrorism is seen as rare, avoidable, and deniable, so people’s amygdalae are not adapting to it as a reality. The public continues its neurotic ways, and seeks painless ways to deal with a problem which nobody takes seriously enough to actually do anything about, beyond sing songs and draw silly cartoons. Indeed, even the idea of limiting immigration from the very part of the world where ISIS formed and is most active, is not viewed as worth implementing. Were violence unavoidable, that would all change fast, and in the process, people would become less anxious.

When harshness becomes unavoidable, mankind will spontaneously morph into something much more impressive and capable. Until then, the rabbit brains and amygdalae will seek the path of least resistance.