[RLUG] pl advocacy

[Anna]

On Wed, Sep 20, 2006 at 04:14:57AM +0000, n a wrote:
> interesting rant
> 
>    http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/12/advocacy.html

that was a lot of fun.

I believe this problem extends into every aspect of life and
communication.  Think for a moment about what inspires passion or any
strong feelings in you.  Chance are, when someone starts talking about
that issue, you stop truly listening.  Instead, you start pulling
exclusively from your memory on the subject and speaking and reacting
from that unchangeable point of view.  Unchangeable (I should say
"nearly unchangeable") because one hears all differing view points as
opposing view points, against which s/he feels a need to defend.

A study I like to talk about (I don't have a reference but can probably
dig one up if you like) in which the brains of registered Republicans
and Democrats were studied while listening to political speech.  This
study showed that the parts of their brains responsible for critical
thinking and in efforts to form real understanding: shut down more or
less completely.  The parts involved in emotion spiked with activity.

Essentially, the message is: they've already made up their minds and are
incapable of coming to an undestanding of the oposition.  sad.

That said, I don't even know the basics of the methods used used during
the study, except that they were using a fairly accurate method of
seeing what parts of the brain were active.  Was the political speech
pure punditry?  was it delivered on a video screen?  audio only?  face
to face?

All the same, this is a universal problem.  humans are pathetic.  :)
that's only my humble opinion though.  hehe.

a question: is the problem with the information source or is it with the
listeners?  do both cause the trouble?  maybe we've lost something that
I'm not aware of the human race ever having:  a focus on understanding
what's going on in other peoples' heads.  If everyone had that as a
major focus in their lives, there would be, relatively speaking, almost
no confusion in the world.  "Advocacy," as we understand it, wouldn't
exist.  There would only be communication.

- Anna