When someone can’t make up their mind, there is more involved than simple indecision. We are all of “two minds.” We have a left brain for logical processes and a right brain for emotion and intuition. In fact we actually have two brains functioning independently of each other, joined at the base by the corpus callosum, which is similar in function to a high speed network cable. Our personalities are to a large degree a function of the blending of our left and right brain processes.
Apparently our political views are also influenced by the structure of our brains. Researchers at University College in London have discovered that those who consider themselves liberal have larger anterior cingulate cortexes and a greater ability to process conflicting information. Those who consider themselves conservative have larger amygdales and a greater ability to recognize threat. The cingulate cortex is involved in executive function, learning and abstract thinking. The amygdala is involved in fear response and, interestingly, memory consolidation.
Perhaps it is understandable that a species with two brains, two eyes, two ears and pairs of limbs would habitually divide itself into two opposing camps. Conservatives and liberals, democrats and republicans compete for what they perceive as their own best interests, but what if those perceptions are filtered through brain structure like fall colors through tinted glasses? Unfortunately for all of us, many people allow their habitual thought processes to become a permanent template against which they measure new ideas and new information. Rather than applying reason and intuition and consciously activating more functions of the brain to arrive at a conclusion, we take the easy way out and measure new information against our old template. In politics this results in people who always vote along party lines, no matter what ideas or experience the candidate has. It results in resistance to change even when change is necessary. It results in unfunded mandates when new missions are begun without proper attention to execution and control.
As humans we have a need to identify with other humans in order to clarify our sense of self. We are also wired to look for cues which separate “us” from “them,” and there is a natural tendency to view “the other” with suspicion. It is easier to consider every democrat a liberal and therefore wrong or every republican a conservative and therefore wrong. In the United States, most of us have evolved beyond judging people based upon surface features such as skin color, but we still judge each other passionately based on the artificial constructs of politics.
We are conscious beings and, unlike animals, we can choose to process information with more of our brain function than we often do. A remarkable feature of our brains is that they are capable of continuing evolution and “rewiring.” Habitual patterns can be overwritten by consciously choosing new behaviors and allowing new information to be incorporated. It would behoove us, during these changing and often dangerous times, to perceive truth as directly as we are capable, without the filters of our preconceived notions and prejudices. To do otherwise is to be willfully ignorant. We do not need to be exclusively liberal or conservative. We can be both at the appropriate juncture. We need liberal thinking to conceive the notion of putting a man on the moon. We need conservative standards to build the rocket.
