Conservatives said the world is an amygdala stimulant, and Donald Trump will be the relaxant. The liberals are trying to assuage everyone’s amygdalae, say the world is just fine, and Donald will be the amygdala stimulant.
The first night of the Republican convention last week began with a clear message: Americans are in peril. “The vast majority of Americans today do not feel safe,” former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said July 18, setting the tone in Cleveland.
A week later, Democrats in Philadelphia agreed about the peril. Where they differed, though, was the cause. “Donald Trump, with all his rhetoric, will literally make us less safe,” said Vice President Joe Biden. “No major party nominee in the history of the station has ever known less or been less prepared to deal with our national security.”
President Barack Obama listed accomplishments and promised a sunny future. Biden previewed an American 21st century. Vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine spoke of “the next chapter” in “our proud story.”
“America is already great. America is already strong. And I promise you are strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump,” Obama told the convention.
In a very real sense, this is what a K-world looks like to a K-strategist, vs what an r-world looks like to an r-strategist. When things are genuinely r, liberals don’t need to rely on denial as a cognitive mechanism to maintain their r-outlook or to engender it in others. The ease and wealth floating around produces dopamine, shuts off the amygdala, and makes everyone afraid to upset that applecart. What happens when you inject an amygdala trigger of reality into a rabbit warren that is bent on seeing utopia?
On the third night of the Democratic convention, a speaker finally brought up defeating ISIS and other terrorists — only to be met with boos from the crowd.
“These murderers must be stopped,” declared former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta. Cue the deafening chorus of boos, plus chants of “No more war!” from convention delegates.
What this means is that practically, as things are shifting K, the liberals need to pile the bullshit ever higher and engender ever deeper states of denial if they want to try to put the audience in an r-mood. Obviously that can only take them so far as the destruction they cause progresses.