FIRST LIAR PRINCIPLE---FIRSTEST WITH THE LEASTEST -

You don’t have to fool all the people all the time. Only about a third need to be consistently fooled by the first lie. A snappy slogan or a short piece of catchy terminology, delivered like a punch-line, will do the trick. Think “family values,” “government is the enemy,” “death panels” or “birthers.” Think insults like “socialist,” “traitor,” “liberal,” and “over-educated.” Think catch-phrases like “Patriot Act,” “defending our freedom,” “Homeland Security,” “preemptive war” and “spreading democracy.”

For continuity, the first lie is simply repeated and used to rebut any of those evil “facts” that might surface later on---such as the fact that “intelligence“ was fabricated to steer the nation into attacking Iraq.

The advantage of the first lie is clear---people best remember the first thing they hear. And too often in politics (and advertising) the first thing they hear is a lie. So, the snappy slogan which first makes it to the ears of its intended audience becomes “the truth.” And, since the corporate interests have all the money, all the political power, and now, thanks to the Supreme Court, more “free speech” than you or I can ever possess---those “first truths” can just be pounded home through endless repetition.

The advantage to making things up is that your “truth” is always ready to go and can be kept locked and loaded in the form of “talking points.” This makes sense because thinking about things before you speak---actually figuring out what happened by investigating the facts takes time, energy, research and intelligence. So, a quick lie beats a long truth. Mark Twain had it right: “A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.“

The evolutionary principle that Humans did not evolve to think, but rather, to react, infers that instant, unthinking acceptance was---in our evolutionary past at least---a more natural and efficient means of survival than standing around trying figure out which facts are true and which are not. Meanwhile, the leopard drops from the tree---as happened to our Australopithecus ancestor “Lucy” (indicated by the bite-marks in her fossilized skull). Today, of course, the “leopard” is a lobbyist, a politician, a politician’s spokes-liar, some talk show host, or a pseudo-news network that drops from the media-tree onto the unsuspecting victim. Again and again. Over and over.

THE HUNTERS’ PRINCIPLE -

Everyone knows that a hunter, such as a wolf, has to be smarter than its prey, such as a caribou. It may be a collective, pack-intelligence, but the thing is, it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming intelligence advantage.

I observed the same thing with humans hunting ptarmigan along the roadways of Alaska. How smart does a Human have to be to kill a ptarmigan that just sits there waiting for the Human to park his vehicle, leaving the engine idling and the door open---just because the bird evolved mostly before projectile weapons made it onto the evolutionary stage?

Evolutionarily-speaking, the fact that Humans are so susceptible to canned truths is just like the ptarmigan that sits there waiting for the two-legged “fox” to make its move but gets knocked down by the blunt arrow or the load of 12-gauge birdshot instead.

That’s how the hunters’ principle applies to politics---fools can be routinely fooled by other fools.

IDEOLOGY---THE POLITICS OF IDIOTS -

In politics, the first liars employ the scientific principle of “primary metaphor.” Yes, it’s a scientific principle of how the Human mind gets things etched into its brain circuits. For those who wish to read more, check out: CommonDreams.org - February 21, 2010.
“A Good Week For Science — and Insight into Politics” by George Lakoff.

“The experimental results confirming our theories of embodied cognition have been coming in regularly, especially in the area of metaphorical thought. Natalie Angier, on February 1, < www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/02angier.html > summarized some of the recent research very clearly.”

TRUE DISBELIEVERS -

True believers should be called true disbelievers because, in order to continue believing in first metaphors, they must work hard to disbelieve the very process of logical thinking itself; and to deny any subsequent evidence or science clearly proving that what they already believe is a steaming load.

For my money, it takes a lot more time, energy and effort to keep on fabricating some false reality rather than just figuring out what is really going on. But that’s just me. My political mentor puts it another way: “I want to know what kills me.“

In any case, the first liar principle and the hunters’ principle work quite well in modern politics. With modern media outlets, modern advertising techniques, and unlimited amounts of cash to propagate first lies---the poor saps with the first metaphors already burned into their brain circuits don’t stand a chance. First lies are believed even after they have been logically proven false and the disseminators revealed as complete hypocrites and liars.

In other words, those captured by the first metaphor are completely captured. Think Tea Baggers. It doesn’t matter if the principles that Tea Baggers believe in are routinely violated by the first liars---or even by their own contradictory statements---the first lie trumps even one‘s own lies and hypocrisies. Ideologists who have already and successfully put the bad mouth on logic, science and reason can consistently sell just about any piece of ideological garbage. They can even sell it to themselves.

STROKING THE LIZARD---ANGRY AMATEURS -

No discussion of the unconscious circuits in the Human brain would be complete without reference to the reptilian brain---that wonderful little knot that sits atop the Human spine like the knob on a walking stick. It’s my favorite part of the brain---the primal seat of pleasure, wonder, fear, awe, sexuality, violence and paranoia. Regulates basic functions such as heartbeat, breathing, digestion, etc.

Frank Rich, “The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged,” New York Times, 2-28-10, describes how the “unhinged” right has been scraping around inside the lizard brain. He describes the anti-tax, anti-government, anti-Republican, anti-Obama, anti-Bush, anti-everything crowd that is forming on the fringes of our political system.

Rich points out that the Tea Baggers are getting out of hand because---despite the fact that Republicans are desperately trying to co-opt the movement---the Tea Baggers are aiming wildly in all directions.

The Tea Party does identify with the proverbial rambling manifesto of domestic terrorist Andrew Joseph Stack III, who deliberately crashed his plane into a building housing an office of the Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Texas on 2-18-10. Since Stack’s ramblings resonate with many in this country, his murderous act of terrorism has been morally downgraded to an anti-tax protest!

Frank Rich cites the “comeback” of “the unhinged and sometimes armed anti-government right...” He calls the Tea party, “ the Party of No Government at All.” He describes how the Tea party, various secessionists, the John Birch Society and others who are soft on, or unable to recognize, domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh and Andrew Joseph Stack III, seem to espouse violence against the government.

Rich mentions such politicians as “Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, [who] even rationalized Stack's crime. ‘It's sad the incident in Texas happened,’ he [Rep. King] said, ‘but by the same token, it's an agency that is unnecessary. And when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the I.R.S., it's going to be a happy day for America.’"

This type of rhetoric should sound familiar---it’s how the murders of abortion doctors are rationalized.

Rich also cites Glenn Beck, who “ominously labeled progressivism a cancer that ‘must be cut out of the system.’" Or Sarah Palin who is willing to “die for my country.” Die doing what, one might wonder?

This is the type of “talk” that “speaks” to the reptilian brains of the wackos out there and is going to bring on more of these acts of domestic violence. And, just like domestic terrorists who ambush abortion doctors---nuts like Oklahoma bomber-Gulf War vet Timothy McVeigh and Andrew Joseph Stack III are not given near the same moral condemnation as Muslim terrorists receive.

All this stroking of the lizard brain is, indeed, “ominous.”

LIBERALS: COGNITIONAL CRIPPLES -

So, how are the liberals reacting to all this craziness? Liberals are politically crippled by their first metaphor: that facts, evidence and logic will triumph if properly and rationally presented to the true disbelievers. Liberals who expect people to actually think, consider, observe, critically examine and intelligently debate are doomed to allow political power to slip from their grasp and to be ineffective while possessing power. Meanwhile, the dumb-ass conservatives just keep pounding away with their first lies and never give the second liars a chance.

CONSERVATIVES: COGNITIVE CRIPPLES -

The great misunderstanding of the conservative, run-of-the-mill, salt-of-the-Earth types is that they perceive the conservative “message” as somehow constituting a set of absolute truths which will triumph not because of any factual logic and reason---but due to their inherent and absolute certainty. That no belief in history has ever been absolutely correct doesn’t matter if you believe it anyway. That’s why “faith” is so popular these days---I call it “believing anyway.” It doesn’t really matter because the first-liar movement uses any belief to get you to vote for them simply by referring the saps back to the first metaphors already etched into their brains.

This is illustrated by the so-called “cultural conservatives”---antiabortion, antigay and antiscience (antievolution). The special interests merely feed these conservative cultural “values” back to the true believers. Some conservative politicians may even believe in it themselves (George W. Bush seemed sincere). No matter that the conservative movement has been at the forefront of smashing America into smithereens---most of the saps will, when push comes to shove, vote “conservative” again because of the “values.”

It’s like the old vaudeville joke about the guy who keeps losing his shirt betting on the horses. His friend suggests that maybe the gambling addict should find another line of work. The race track aficionado replies: “But I KNOW horses!”

Sincerity is the key to selling lies. Think of Sarah Palin and the Tea Baggers. Sarah Palin is popular, among other things, because she seems so gosh-darned sincere. But how smart does she really have to be to keep fooling a bunch of people who believe in death panels and are fixated on President Obama’s mythical, legendary, supposedly missing birth certificate (and his blackness, of course)? As if it even mattered. These people are beyond the first metaphor---at some point we must pay homage to good-old-fashioned stupidity and stop excusing it as mere ignorance or unconscious reflex. Let’s face it, some folks is just plain stupid.

A STREAK OF NASTY -

What liberals don’t understand but conservatives do understand is that Americans have got a streak of nasty going.

Let me quote Mark Ames from his Feb 28, 2010 blog: “We're So Doomed: Paul Krugman Briefly Demonstrates Why Liberals Are Stuck In General Custer's Army.”

[Ames] “I’m going to quote myself from an article I wrote for the New York Press back in 2004, when it was becoming clear that the liberals were going to do their best to lose the election against Bush:

“But what if the Truth is that Americans don’t want to know the Truth? What if Americans consciously choose lies over truth when given the chance---and not even very interesting lies, but rather the blandest, dumbest and meanest lies? What if Americans are not a likeable people? The left’s wires short-circuit when confronted with this terrible possibility; the right, on the other hand, warmly embraces Middle America’s rank soul and exploits it to their full advantage. The Republicans know Americans better than the left. They know that it’s not so much Goering’s [Nazi] famous “bigger lie” that works here, but the dumber the lie, the more they want to hear it repeated.

“…If I’m an obese 40-something white male living in Ohio or Nevada, locked into a permanent struggle with foreclosure, child support payments and outsourcing threats, then I’m going to vote for the guy who delivers a big greasy portion of misery to the Sarandon-Robbins [Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins---liberal activists] dining room table, then brags about it on FoxNews. Even if it means hurting myself in the process.”

IT’S THE WAY WE ARE WIRED -

The manner in which metaphorical pathways can be burned into the Human brain affect everyone more or less. Just as conservative followers somehow expect their leaders to have their basic interests at heart (or at least the basic ideology in mind), so too do liberals believe that their leaders still hold to progressive principles. That’s why some liberals still think that President Obama is merely acting “conservative” for purposes of political expediency and bipartisanship. As if he really had a progressive agenda but was just keeping it under wraps so as not to frighten the poor ignorant conservatives.

The dim-witted Tea Bagger conservatives, of course, actually believe that Obama is a radical, left-wing socialist---a direct contradiction of reality.

BEEN SO BAD WE DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW BAD WE’VE BEEN -

Look, I’m down with all this unconscious brain circuitry science---but something else is going on here. People just don’t want to consciously face how bad things really are; they can‘t stand to contemplate how much and how easily they have been deceived; and they certainly don’t want to know specifically how they themselves are part of the problem.

We are also conscious beings---there must be some public awareness of what this nation has become. The American dream is pixilating. We have at least two botched wars; a botched economy; a potentially fried Planet; certainly a poisoned Planet; terrible Human rights abuses; a loss of personal freedoms; moral depravity; a depraved indifference to the suffering of others; and a divided nation almost certainly fallen into evil hands. Maybe it’s all just too much to bear---Americans have been living the dream for so long they just can’t believe it’s over. Besides, what other choices do people have? To admit the reality is to admit we were so stupid we couldn’t possibly have seen any of this coming. Or, that we were just a bunch of greedy hypocrites now getting what we deserve. Or, as the anger-monkeys seem to have decided: Blame someone else.

While anger is still a form of denial, at least the incensed segment is not living completely in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land where “the market will correct itself” or all we have to do is tighten our belts, grow our own food, or spend more time with our families, etc.

EVEN THE ELITES ARE GETTING NERVOUS -

The financial, industrial, military elite is getting nervous about amateur assassins---the do-it-yourself terrorists and bombers. No doubt because they are feeling “target-worthy” themselves. So, far, the elite has had the government and the military working on its behalf and the media hustling to get out their corporate message. This accounts, in my opinion, for the recent lack of political assassinations (physical killings) in this well-armed nation---there is no need. No charismatic leader has emerged to challenge the corporate-military-industrial takeover and speak out for the poor as Jack Kennedy and Martin Luther King once did. And the people are either too dumb, too distracted or too pussy-whipped to pay much attention to those few public figures who do speak out.

For the moment, dirty and lowdown is the new dialogue. Stupid is the new smart. Nasty the new nice. I can’t see this fearful state of mind lasting very much longer without escalating. So brace yourselves for worse to come. For now, anger is mostly a form of denial but could easily turn to outright violence. So far, no facts, no logic and no rational arguments seem capable of penetrating that primitive, lizard-like brain that sits at the very core of us all and where many have chosen to take refuge or permanently reside.

Rudy Wittshirk