Redirecting Social Thought for a New Social Imagination...

 

Between the 1790 and 1820, a new means for bridging society and the government was being taken seriously in the young American Republic largely by the ruling elite. In order to direct social change (in the social imagination) that many people were not ready for nor even asking for. We have been made to believe that the American Revolution was embraced by every single person living in the colonies.

But, that is not true. So, to drive this new vision/agenda, there had to be a correlated effort. However, wordage alone was not the way forward alone. Another means or directive had to be taken and that was the use of statistics in relation to the created ‘story line’. To prove to people that the so-called events of their times was data that showed what was at stake and what was the way forward.

The birth of spin doctors in America happened early on as a tool for the revolution which made a lot of people rich at the expense of others. Sure, we glorify the end results but they were initially spun to maintain the social thought required for those times.

As proof of this, we can read about the Shay Rebellion. Five years after Yorktown, the promise of the American Revolution essentially did not happen for thousands of farmers in western and central Massachusetts, many of whom had risked their lives serving in the state militia and Continental Army.

They had received little pay or reimbursement for their military service, and now with the fledgling country mired in a severe economic recession, debt collectors began to seize their farms and possessions for unpaid debts and delinquent taxes.

Men who fought for their freedom now languished behind bars in debtor prisons. George Washington saw this as a threat against the tranquility of the Union and he called for strengthening the federal government in order to put down future uprisings.

Although plans for a Constitutional Convention were already under way, the uprising in Massachusetts led to further calls for a stronger national government…

The early Americans then saw that liberty hard won could be easily lost. And, that same principle applied to the ruling class and political ruling cast… their new found liberty meant something different to them and they did not want to lose their position in it… “given they wrote that all men were created equal”. Which became a real image in the minds of early Americans and they embraced it. Perhaps, a surprise to the ruling elite… and thus, that wordage came back to bite them in arse so to speak.

Are we witnessing a new spin through (so-called legitimate) media that is to redirect social thought (all shared information in the social imagination)? Yes! Why? Because, America like the rest of the world is changing fast; and so, there is a need for a radical change in the social imagination; the way man thinks and interacts. 

What kind of change in social thought? Well, its no longer what man thought it was... the American who thought liberty and the pursuit of happiness was his/hers because all are created equal. 

No, the new man/woman today needs a new social thought a new social imagination that aims to blend or interface man and machine think together (if that's possible). The future is about man and machine. Its the new frontier whereby man's ability to learn from his/her mistakes, the ability think on one's feet, to question society and government especially those in it... is being squelched.

Liberty is no longer the way forward in the age of super high technology whereby Ai and quantum computing head the new revolution. Sadly, there will not be any Shay's Rebellion this time, though I would like to be wrong.  

Its possible... but only if the ruling elite oppose it as much as those who prefer liberty (give me liberty or give me death) over power and position. But, that's not likely since the elite are in love with money and power.  Ironically, they will unknowingly or maybe knowingly come under the new authority which they help to create- the Beast. They will think its the way forward and that its numbers and wordage will keep them safe. Not!

 

https://www.history.com/news/how-shays-rebellion-changed-america

 

Atlas Doesn't Seem to be Shrugging in the Social Imagination...

 

 

Ayn Rand wrote the book, Atlas Shrugged. The story is about a new revolution, a capitalist revolution. It is truly "The Capitalist Manifesto".

The theme of Atlas Shrugged, as Rand described it, is "the role of man's mind in existence". The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism. In doing so, it expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, and capitalism, and depicts what Ayn Rand saw to be the failures of governmental coercion.

The book depicts a dystopian United States in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. Rand's stated goal for writing the novel was to show how desperately the world needs prime movers and how viciously it treats them and to portray what happens to the world without them.

Who was Ayn Rand and why did she write that kind of story? Rand, her pen name, was Russian born. She was educated (studied philosophy) in Russia and moved to the US in 1926. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge; she rejected faith and religion in favor of rationalism and ethical egoism thereby rejecting altruism. 

First of all, to understand why Atlas is or isn't shrugging these days, we must look at why Rand's faith in reason, rationalism, ethical egoism and acquiring knowledge was sadly misplaced. What? Indeed, those very crucial and value laden aspirations fall short in a fallen world. They are necessary to strive for but they only have meaning for those striving toward them who are driven by deeper motives...

Rand touted that she believed in herself and that may be very important; but such a belief can leave you among islands of others who believe the same about themselves. Sure, you can argue that if a bunch of people think they are their own best shot at the world and have only themselves to rely on just try to negotiate with them in order to get the best for yourself. Now, some might think that such a scenario allows everyone participating to win but is that really true given the nature of social dynamics in the social imagination. Its not always going to be a win win, is it?

You see, the problem with that kind of thinking (win win) is that meaning runs deep. You are more than just an island of total self-sufficiency. You are a composite of social reality... all encounters within a given frame of the social imagination. Your life has meaning to it and so do other lives. All meaning is acquired in the place where you have found and find yourself over a period of time. Your social imagination is unique while at the same time a kin to others within that same framework; hence, we can define cultural data as this kind over another.

Sure, there are belief systems or world views that many people find meaning in and share in that meaning. But, if you don't find yourself in the framework of meaning, you will feel outside of it, indifferent or resistant to. Blood is  thicker than water if you know what I mean. Thus, others that are outside of your framework of meaning will indeed become obstacles to your best shot at the world. We need to have a reason to move out, but that reason is tied to the mother of our reasoning... like an umbilical cord.

Is that the reason Atlas is or isn't shrugging these days? Yes and no. Atlas cannot bear the weight of the world wherein objectivism is the means for living.  Every objective view is yet tied to the thing its looking at. And, that thing is a weight but one that grounds and sustains and allows the mover to move out. A Constitution (social contract) does that... like the Constitution of the United States for example. 

Rather, Atlas maybe shrugging in grief these days for cords are being cut all around the world. The tethered rope that keeps us sane has been sniped by a crown and its mandatory jab as if that is the only resolve to stop the chaos. 

Atlas needs room to move and that is obviously being limited. He needs to shrug off that which binds while at the same time keep at least a constant thread of meaning for what is common among us. 

Remember, Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". He can only know what his/her happiness is in comparison, his noble activity can only be seen as noble if there are others to witness it. Thus, it means something to him/her and to others. 

Are you willing to stand up and be a hero? If you can't be one for others, you can't be one for yourself. In fact, you would not even know what a hero is let alone that you need to be a hero for yourself or others. You need social context to know that and if others either stand in your way of being a hero or stand in wait of one. Such a hero has no purpose in socialism, communism. The State is your goal, your savior. 

You might think that there is everything wrong with capitalism and yet there is nothing wrong with capitalism... its freeing. It looks for and embraces the hero and lifts him/her up. It sets a precedent, a standard which in a free society is for all that try to reach it.

Hence, Atlas needs to shrug and take up the weight that is not only a burden to him but obviously to everyone else. Take that weight and cast it out, free up the burden that weighs you down and those around you. As yourself, "if I can't who will"? The State won't... its bogged down in bureaucracy that wants to make all things mean the same. 

Again, as social actors living in the social imagination, we all need to share in the same meaning (group identity) which comes from being together in a place over time: being in our town, our city, our country and at the same time we don't need a top down driven tyranny that dictates meaning to the extent that its intention is to clip the wings of eagles that might soar. 

Cast out that which hinders... Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind ~ 1 Peter 2:1...for you have the authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases ~ Luke 9:1.

 

 

Classical Conditioning in the Social Imagination...

 

 

*The text below has been pasted here for your reading pleasure... check out the provided online source.

Pavlov’s Famous Study

The best-known of Pavlov’s experiments involves the study of the salivation of dogs. Pavlov was originally studying the saliva of dogs as it related to digestion, but as he conducted his research, he noticed that the dogs would begin to salivate every time he entered the room—even if he had no food. The dogs were associating his entrance into the room with being fed. This led Pavlov to design a series of experiments in which he used various sound objects, such as a buzzer, to condition the salivation response in dogs.

He started by sounding a buzzer each time food was given to the dogs and found that the dogs would start salivating immediately after hearing the buzzer—even before seeing the food. After a period of time, Pavlov began sounding the buzzer without giving any food at all and found that the dogs continued to salivate at the sound of the buzzer even in the absence of food. They had learned to associate the sound of the buzzer with being fed.

If we look at Pavlov’s experiment, we can identify the four factors of classical conditioning at work:

• The unconditioned response was the dogs’ natural salivation in response to seeing or smelling their food.
• The unconditioned stimulus was the sight or smell of the food itself.
• The conditioned stimulus was the ringing of the bell, which previously had no association with food.
• The conditioned response, therefore, was the salivation of the dogs in response to the ringing of the bell, even when no food was present.

Pavlov had successfully associated an unconditioned response (natural salivation in response to food) with a conditioned stimulus (a buzzer), eventually creating a conditioned response (salivation in response to a buzzer). With these results, Pavlov established his theory of classical conditioning.

Neurological Response to Conditioning

Consider how the conditioned response occurs in the brain. When a dog sees food, the visual and olfactory stimuli send information to the brain through their respective neural pathways, ultimately activating the salivation glands to secrete saliva. This reaction is a natural biological process as saliva aids in the digestion of food. When a dog hears a buzzer and at the same time sees food, the auditory stimulus activates the associated neural pathways. However, because these pathways are being activated at the same time as the other neural pathways, there are weak synapse reactions that occur between the auditory stimulus and the behavioral response. Over time, these synapses are strengthened so that it only takes the sound of a buzzer (or a bell) to activate the pathway leading to salivation.

Behaviorism and Other Research

Pavlov’s research contributed to other studies and theories in behaviorism, which is an approach to psychology interested in observable behaviors rather than the inner workings of the mind. The philosopher Bertrand Russell argued that Pavlov’s work was an important contribution to a philosophy of mind. Pavlov’s research also contributed to Hans Eysench’s personality theory of introversion and extroversion. Eysench built upon Pavlov’s research on dogs, hypothesizing that the differences in arousal that the dogs displayed was due to inborn genetic differences. Eysench then extended the research to human personality traits.

Pavlov’s research further led to the development of important behavior-therapy techniques, such as flooding and desensitizing, for individuals who struggle with fear and anxiety. Desensitizing is a kind of reverse conditioning in which an individual is repeatedly exposed to the thing that is causing the anxiety. Flooding is similar in that it exposes an individual to the thing causing the anxiety, but it does so in a more intense and prolonged way.

Classical Conditioning in Humans

The influence of classical conditioning can be seen in responses such as phobias, disgust, nausea, anger, and sexual arousal. A familiar example is conditioned nausea, in which the sight or smell of a particular food causes nausea because it caused stomach upset in the past. Similarly, when the sight of a dog has been associated with a memory of being bitten, the result may be a conditioned fear of dogs.

As an adaptive mechanism, conditioning helps shield an individual from harm or prepare them for important biological events, such as sexual activity. Thus, a stimulus that has occurred before sexual interaction comes to cause sexual arousal, which prepares the individual for sexual contact. For example, sexual arousal has been conditioned in human subjects by pairing a stimulus like a picture of a jar of pennies with views of an erotic film clip. Similar experiments involving blue gourami fish and domesticated quail have shown that such conditioning can increase the number of offspring. These results suggest that conditioning techniques might help to increase fertility rates in infertile individuals and endangered species.

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

Classical conditioning is used not only in therapeutic interventions, but in everyday life as well. Advertising executives, for example, are adept at applying the principles of associative learning. Think about the car commercials you have seen on television: many of them feature an attractive model. By associating the model with the car being advertised, you come to see the car as being desirable (Cialdini, 2008). You may be asking yourself, does this advertising technique actually work? According to Cialdini (2008), men who viewed a car commercial that included an attractive model later rated the car as being faster, more appealing, and better designed than did men who viewed an advertisement for the same car without the model.

 Are you being conditioned, like a dog, to get jabbed and who knows what else? 

FYI, Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, earned a doctorate in the biotechnology of reproduction at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki's Veterinary School in 1985. Bourla joined Pfizer in 1993, first serving as a doctor of veterinary medicine and technical director for the company's animal health division in Greece...Who's dog are you? Just askin...

*ONLINE SOURCE ~  https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/classical-conditioning/