Our brains have evolved in lockstep with all life on earth and, as a result, consists of roughly three functional and interacting layers. Here's a short post on how these layers' interaction has been co-opted by the plutonomy.
source: Wikipedia
From reptilians to early mammals to higher mammals; that's a rough timeline of animal evolution on our planet. All these animals have brains, but humans have the most evolved brains of them all. However, we still have aspects of all evolutionary stages within our skulls and they interact with each other in rather particular ways. At the base of our spine rests the most ancient part of our grey mass, aptly called the "Reptilian Complex" (also known as the "R-complex", "reptilian brain" or "lizard brain"). It regulates all the automatic functions, such as heartbeat, breathing, as well as instinctual behaviors involving aggression, dominance, mating, territoriality and so on.
On top of that we find the "Paleomammalian Complex", which consists of several parts and is more generally known as the "limbic system". This part is responsible for the motivation and emotion involved in feeding, reproductive behaviour, and parental behaviour. Fear, arousal, anxiety, love, lust and disgust, our most basic emotions are housed in the limbic system, and can influence our lizard brain; when we're exited with fear or love, that causes our hearts to beat faster or make us sweat.
On top of it all we have our most prized possession, the "Neomammalian Complex" which consists of the neocortex and is only found in higher mammals, especially humans. It contains the ability for language, abstraction, planning and perception. It's easy to imagine how the neocortex, our capacity to reason, can influence the limbic system and the lizard brain; when afraid or stressed out, sweating and heart racing, consciously think of something great you've experienced, think about the best times you've ever had, and your emotions will calm down, as well as your heart and sweat glands.
Looking at the above it's all too easy to think that we are in control of our emotions, that the neocortex is the master of the lower layers, as the communication and influence goes from top to bottom. The truth is that communication between the three layers goes in the opposite direction as well, and just as easily. That's the part we tend to forget, and it's how our behavior is controlled by the hierarchical political and socioeconomic system. Behavior is controlled by beliefs and our state of mind, so behavioral control is achieved through the control of the interactions between the triune brain's layers.
I've often talked about how advertisements say the opposite of what they depict; by showing you all those smiling and happy customers enjoying product X, what's communicated is that you life is lacking. Advertisements are to make you unhappy with your life and with yourself. These pictures of happy people are not to make you happy. Instead they arouse emotions of stress and inadequacy in your limbic system, causing effects in both directions, to the neocortex and the lizard brain. Scarcity of food, hunger, and other real life shortcomings, such as housing, job security, adequate access to healthcare and so on, make us less social by activating our basic reptilian survival mechanisms and corresponding limbic emotions. It's easy to share and give when you live in abundance, not so easy when you lack everything.
Capitalism is the perfect storm; it leverages both our material circumstances and our mental state in order to manufacture our thoughts and behavior such that we "willingly" perpetuate the system that has us stuck in a state of powerlessness and need. I have to give credit to Elon Musk here, as much as I hate to do so, as he described the internet and social platforms as limbic system pleasing machines. Likes and shares on our posts give us a short boost of endorphins, making us feel good, but in the meanwhile the algorithms trap us in confirmation-bias bubbles, shutting us away from opposing views and opinions, gradually making is dumber; that's the triune brain lullaby singing us to sleep while the expropriators are laughing all the way to the bank and the presidency...
3 Brain Systems That Control Your Behavior: Reptilian, Limbic, Neo Cortex | Robert Sapolsky
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