Understanding War Mongers And Crack Heads
Trying to change its program
Trying to change the mode -- crack the code
Images conflicting into data overload
-- Neil Peart/Rush; Grace Under Pressure; The Body Electric, 1984
"M0" (Monster Zero) infection (see links below) is a fascinating theory about social control, enculturation, brainwashing, and addiction. According to the theory, "we're all" hooked on the brain neurostransmitter - brain chemicals that communicate messages between brain cells (neurons) - dopamine, the popular, much talked about, neurotransmitter often associated with pleasure, love, chocolate, cocaine, alcohol, parkinson's desease, and even addiction prevention.
The desease inflicts most cultures, with onset in early childhood. The infection is possible by virture of the fact that, as neuroscience has shown, not only can neurochemistry affect mood, behavior, perception, but the reverse relationship exists whereby behavior, mood, experience, can affect neurochemestry.
"Ha!," you scoff, "That proposition is about as sound as a person being addicted to food," you insulantly persist. "How can someone be addicted to their own neurochemistry assuming the absence of psychoactive narcotics?," you, never-the-less, ever the inquizative, ask. To understand that this is possible one must think like an anthropologist, and understand that various aspects of mental state - and thus neurochemistry - can vary from one society to the next. So a theory stating that we, as are many other societies, hopped up on too much dopamine for our own good, as a function of behavior, etc., is not entirely without face validity.
As the theory has it, we are raised to view the world within a tight set of perceptual constructs, with perceptions outside of which becoming sources of fear, and anxiety, which we are implicitly taught to avoid. Thus behavioral psychology concepts of rewards, and punishments, are tied into our vary perceptions of reality. The dopamine pleasure circuit - the addiction bootstraping, and strengthening of which is an integral part of our rearing - is the physiological mechanism through which our cultural training is instilled. The problem is not that the dopamine pleasure circuit exists - it's hardwired - but rather, that our worldview encourages dopamine levels that are too high, leaving us dangerously maliable to behavioral modification techniques, similar to how an addict will go to extemes to get a fix.
So we are taught to avoid novelty or anything that produces anxiety (which is, at least, anything not delinieated by our handed down worldview) and otherwise avoid punishment, perform boring tasks, all of which, along with plenty of deep (REM) sleep, increase brain dopamine levels, and subsequent pleasureable, and thus rewarding dopaminergic neuron stimulation. Once the dopamine addiction is instilled, from around age 4, people will go to great lengths to maintain it - which means engaging in the above listed behaviors, which again, increases dopamine, which increases the desire for said behaviors, and so on. It's a self-reenforcing loop, a clasic addiction. Which begs the question: is your average "well heeled," dopamnie addicted model of society any less ruthless, dangerous, than a common crack head?
M0's as refered to in the theory literature, suffer additional symptoms including a sort of hypnotic, stupification, whereby, in this "standby mode" (not sleep, not objectively alert, but "alert") they are unable to reason, think analytically, to any substantial degree, though they are never-the-less very clever, and bright, in terms of how to maintain their addiction supporting standard of living. Perhaps it's a matter of motivation, or objective, but among the M0 afflicted, for instance, solving a problem seems not so much about, well, an actual sollution, as it does the pretense of a sollution, passing the official problem on to someone else, or simply sweeping it under the rug. To the M0, the only problem worth actually solving is the maintenance of their dopamine addiction. To them it seems, a win, win situation is one in which their addiction is fed, and the official problem is gotten rid of, regardless of whether this entails any real sollution to the official problem.
One section of the paper quotes email from a non-afflicted (neurologically "immune") correspondent:
Why do politicians and/or journalists never use little diagrams with arrows on them, showing steps in logic? Why do they never use spreadsheets? Why do they cheerfully respond to one "but" with another "but" that might be about an effect several orders of magnitude smaller than the first "but"?
The email continues, describing a discussion, or "jam session" among M0s which essentially degenerated into a "dopamine orgy"::
Simple answer: Pointless, circular, dysfunctional joke dialogues like this are in themselves a content free dopamine raising ritual! It's rather like the way ISO9001 sites quickly degrade into the meta-ritual of "arguing" around in circles about the definition of the rituals! Perhaps this is why public policy debate is forever stuck in endless dysfunctional nonsense about tactics, and the objectives of the society (that presumably the tactics are intended to accomplish) are never addressed.
Indeed, consider whether you've ever sat through a meeting that just seemed to go 'round in circles, where everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, though waiting for someone, perhaps one dopamine immune, a problem solver, to speak up, add some input that would give everyone else a clue as to how to proceed and at least pretend to arrive at a constructive conclusion. Or worse, you speak up, only to find you've inturrupted an exchange of no other purpose than dopamine stimulation. Of course, to be fair, some are more "socially graceful", and can maintain the dopamine buzz, meeting problems with sollutions, in stride.
Thinking, to the M0 afflicted is painful. It produces too much anxiety, fear of the unknown. Thinking is for scientists. And M0s are uncomfortable with even relatively tame novelity. But the dopaminergic buzz is delightful, and M0s will go to great lengths to maintain it. Dopamine makes everything better - colors, music, general state of mind, stress endurance, etc. - so motivation to maintain the addiction is high.
The theory rings true, and breaths new life into the adage about giving up feedom for comfort and security. As the theory has it, addicted by age four, and thus ever comfortable, secure, it might be more appropriate to invert the adage into something like, 'giving up comfort and security for the freedom we've never had.' And the theory predicts that social control is much more sophistocated (or more simple) than any sophisticated public relations compaign. It's mechanism - habituation to safety, comfort, pretictability - resulting in physiological addiction, the theory predicts the addiction strengthens in proportion to greater levels of social control - the addictied, swimming in dopamine, love it.
In modern physiology, and psychology circles, the dopamine pleasure circuit is a well known construct. It is the brain's rewards/punishments hardware mechanism through which a society, through various behavioral psychology methods, not the least of which is coersion by means of force, encourages comformity. Non-conformity threatens dopamine addiction - withdrawal - and is to many, a frieghtening proposition giving new meaning to the term, terrorist in present day context, as war hysteria, and increasing pressure to conform, the theory predicts, serve to further increase dopamine levels - those caught up are consummed, basking in a tunnel vision like reality comfort zone, no reason to question, much oppertunity for dopamine raising self agrandizment, and non-conforming outsiders, outspoken or not, are easily identifiable, and found threatening.
The authors say these abnormally high dopamine levels are a root of a corrupting societal influence. But, evidence associating high dopamine levels with good health, would seem to contradict this. However, whereas in the proverbial "state of nature" only successful problem solvers, the "wise", might ever attain such high levels of dopamine, such in modern society is rather instilled, and enforced by rote so to speak, and therein may lie a crucially important distinction - there are many with the attributes of wisdom, without having born the neccessary hurdles to obtain it, none-the-less "addicted", without the "requisite" wisdom. Well, that's a nice, symetrical, parsimonious theory anyway - but on the other hand, high dopamine levels probably should never persist, as the authors hold, outside of siege situations, where cautious, waiting, hiding, is called for. And this sounds like our predatory, state of nature like, brand of capitalism, wherein most of the world's population are not unlike cornered animals - under siege - waiting out an endless succession of storms in perpetual fear as a function of chronic economic instability.
It is tempting to dismiss the theory as a satiracal commentary on what is nothing more than human nature, as the theory appears to simply run parallel with conventional behavioral psychology theories, and the dopamine pleasure circuit. But this theory claims that, though most do, not all "realties" result in such high dopamine levels - Aboriginal, and Native American are named as exceptions. If nothing else, the theory provides for some interesting insight into the inner workings of a range of behaviors so broad, that there's little need for qualification. At any rate, the theory's author's seem to be quite serious.
They conclude, "If the picture is correct, there is much to do. We are faced with the biggest public health problem in history, but we get a huge "peace dividend" for solving it because so many other problems are caused by it."
The theory is presented in the paper found at M0 Parasite and be sure and see the especially apropos section entitled, The Socioeconomic/Warfare Cycle.
The site's main page, containing other very interesting corresponding chapters on consciousness, cosmology, magic, is here:
Bryan McGregor Hoover
bhoover@wecs.com