One of the interesting things about politics is that people suspend their normal understanding of the world when the topic shifts to politics. It is as if we have a separate brain that is only used for discussing current events. In our daily lives, our normal brain does the thinking and evaluating for us. It assesses people and decisions by weighing the facts against past practice. When the topic shifts to politics, the normal brain shuts down and the political brain fires up.
The easy example is the people in politics. Normal brain would never take advice from a stranger with no qualifications. If someone you do not know knocks on your door offering advice, you close the door, maybe call the cops. On the other hand, if that guy says he is running for office and wants to tell you what is best for your community, you take the time to listen. The guy could be naked, but if he is clearly talking politics, well, let us hear what naked guy has to say.
Few people in office are qualified for any job in the real world. The closest any of them come to real work is the law. More often than not, their legal experience was brief, just enough to get them some connections so they could run for office or maybe catch on at a government agency to network. There are a few flim-flam men from Wall Street who end up in politics, but banking is to work what tarot card reading is to science. For most, the only thing they have done is politics.
Political brain finds this perfectly normal. Normal brain, however, would pop out of our skull and run away before allowing the crazy guy in shipping to tell the accounting department how to close the month. Normal brain would never allow the guys in sales to tell production what to make next month. Normal brain expects the decisions to be made by people who are experienced and qualified. Even then, normal brain likes to see some proof before making a decision.
This is most obvious in the consensus building. In every meeting in our work life, normal brain is there reminding us that most of the people in the room are morons whose opinion should be ignored. Most of the room is people who are just going to say something so the boss notices them and thinks they are participating. Normal brain knows that most decisions, thankfully, are not made by committee, because normal brain knows all of us are dumber than most of us.
Political brain, on the other hand, takes the opposite view. Political brains says that we have to all come together and reach a consensus. We have to have long debates where everyone gets to make their voice heard. You cannot leave decisions to just one person as that is not how democracy works. No matter how many times the search for consensus results in the wrong answer, political brain insists that a room full of stupid people will find the right answer.
There is very little about politics, especially democratic politics, which makes any sense to our normal brain. In any other context, normal brain would recoil in horror at what political brain considers rational. It is, however, our political brain that tells us to trust unqualified and unscrupulous strangers. It is our political brain that tells us to give that weirdo a chance to speak. On the other hand, it is our normal brain that has to live with the consequences of what political brain has done.
For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. Or, you can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!
Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.
The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.
Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb. Just email them directly to book at sales@minterandrichterdesigns.com.
This Week’s Show
Contents
- Soccer
- Politics
- Cows
- Democracy
Direct Download, The iTunes, Google Play, iHeart Radio, RSS Feed
Full Show On Spreaker
Full Show On Odysee
On the topic of Political Brains – I was on a long drive last evening and happened to listen to an interview with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. He said “that he has not been briefed by Nancy Pelosi even once on the Iran deal. ” I thought, OK what will he do? And he never disappoints – he said ” he has written a Letter to Nancy”, and it’s quite harshly worded. WOW – that will stop her.
16
Exactly what republicans have always done. Not a damn thing.
1
“Normal brain knows that most decisions, thankfully, are not made by committee, because normal brain knows all of us are dumber than most of us.”
I like you Z, but OBVIOUSLY you’ve never been in a meeting where someone has trotted out the new chestnut “Teamwork makes the Dream Work.” 🙄
“In every meeting in our work life, normal brain is there reminding us that most of the people in the room are morons whose opinion should be ignored. Most of the room is people who are just going to say something so the boss notices them and thinks they are participating.”
However, I suspect you’ve been in many of the same meetings I have. 😏
“Political brains says that we have to all come together and reach a consensus. We have to have long debates where everyone gets to make their voice heard.”
Sadly corporate world seems to be falling into this more and more. I wonder why?
4
Way back when I was starting out, I got put into a job for which I was wholly unqualified. My bosses needed to the fill the job and I happened to be available. Not knowing any better, I figured I should actually find out what I was supposed to be doing, so I went around to all the managers and asked them what they wanted from me. Most would mention something they brought up in prior meetings. My predecessor loved meetings.
Eventually, I got one guy to tell me what he needed. I gave it to him. All of a sudden, all of them were making requests, almost all of which were sensible. I never had any meetings. Instead I’d go around and talk to people, which I later learned was something called management by walking around. Everyone suddenly became more productive. Dumb luck and ignorance is often the bets teacher.
16
Walk around, ask your clients what they need, and deliver it to them?
You subversive! You’re supposed to follow the approved channels! What’s wrong with you? 😏
(Goodness forbid you actually, y’know, talk to people plainly and figure out what’s needed. Besides, you can’t get a catered lunch out of it.) 😄
6
“Dumb luck and ignorance is often the bets teacher.”
If you like. But your story bespeaks a high degree of common sense, too.
3
That has been the key to the success in my career.
I get out of my chair and do face to face individual meetings.
People respond to one on one face to face interaction.
It also helps if you talk to corporate big wigs in short sentences and no more than 30 second in length explanations of very complex problems.
Most corporate executives have the attention span of a gnat.
6
Does anyone actually say those things in the real world who is an adult?
I understand HR has this sort of stuff, as its unicorns, magic dirt and hamster squealing, but really how could anyone who has to actually work for a living say that with a straight face.
3
Looks like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays!
6
Oh yes, I’ve heard men AND women say it in meetings, even this week.
Wouldn’t post it if it’s not true.
That said we beat the Nazis and the Japanese, built the strongest industrial base in the world, and built the largest economy in the world with guys who had three martini lunches, smoked cigarettes, ate red meat, and called women broads and addressed them as “Honey” or “Sweetie”.
And we built supersonic fighters, jumbo jets, and got to the moon with guys who chain smoked cigarettes and mainlined coffee.
Now we have Twitter and Facebook.
13
IMO, Americans no longer have common sense and clear thinking in most things and are like the person who has some slight medical symptoms but convinces themselves it’s nothing and will be okay and takes some OTC pill for relief…but 3 years later it’s 4th stage cancer and has metastasized.
6
Your analogy is OK, for a large segment of the population. Unfortunately, the other half have become a quite different patient. They are the ones who have rather mild cold symptoms, but go on the internet and convince themselves (thanks to a few “expert” sites) that they have terminal cancer and are doomed.
Neither patient is able or willing to deal with the actual problems.
6
I am completely baffled that the half the country, who spent the past two years hiding under their beds from a bad cold, are now foaming at the mouth to wage nuclear WW3 against Russia.
I simply can’t process how so many can be that far detached from reality.
10
Pink Floyd explanation:
…You rearrange me till I’m sane. You lock the door and throw away the key and there’s someone in my head but it’s not me…
The best takeaway for me is that the NPC, the addict, the mentally ill, will always choose their personal delusions over reality. Best not to be in their path.
Like the “markets”. The signals are of little value in terms of anchoring to reality or settling on some paradigm that orders the chaos.
But you take some small portion of the noise relative to the momentum – and then make a bet. Staying well clear of all the chatter and institutionalized insanity that attempts to get you to purchase a “strategy”; to join the herd.
The value of the 50% of perpetual foamers is not in understanding the various afflictions that drive them toward the cliff, but in reminding ourselves that a significant portion of our fellow Americans are somewhere between unreliable and outright dangerous and so we are best focusing our efforts with the few capable and savvy already on our side to stay well clear of the stampede.
But it’s still a lot of castles in the sand. Even on our “side” I am struck by those who can say “they stole the election in 2020 so we must vote them out in 2022” without a smirk.
Or “Russian aggression must be stopped or else the Soviet Union will rise again and by the way Russia are losing badly ” or whatever the second smartest man on the internet is bludgeoning his simps with lately.
3
Stout rankings:
1. Beamish
2. Murphy’s
3. Guinness (in the nitro can)
4. Left Hand Nitro Stout (also in the nitro can, and American!)
5. Victoria Nuland
6. Every other “stout”
3
I cannot find Beamish around here. I don’t care for Murphy’s, to be honest. Guinness in the nitro can is the best I can get and I’m not complaining.
3
I like the reds, Killians etc.
2
Every now and then I can find a Murphy’s. Beamish is the hardest to find here in the US. That’s probably why I like those two more than Guinness.
There’s a brew called Caffrey’s which is part stout and part bitter, and it’s the nectar of the Gods. Whenever you’re in the UK or maybe Canada, try it.
1
‘I would rather be governed by the first 1,000 people listed in the phone book than by the faculty members from an Ivy League University’. William F. Buckley
Correct quote. I remember him saying Harvard though.
6
Mayor of DC, prison, mayor of DC. But that ‘b’ set him up!
Of all the political scumbag morons, there are only two worth a vote.
Paul Gosar and Neil Kumar. It would be remarkable if Kumar could pull off a victory in Arkansas.
Great podcast today.
1
“Mayor of DC, prison, mayor of DC. But that ‘b’ set him up!”
File it under “He’s an SOB but he’s OUR SOB.”
Enter the Woman.
It’s why, even with the plethora of morons in the biz world, things ran smoothly.
4
“Normal brain would never allow the guys in sales to tell production what to make next month….”
———————————-
Excuse me? Errmmmm… that’s exactly what they are supposed to do. That is part of their job.
2
In my experience:
If ‘tell’ = forecast, not so bad (but know your forecaster)
If ‘tell’ = dictate, bad things happen
1
nope. for a start, they don’t generally know what’s already in inventory :). sales people are important, but they are also very “slippery”…
That depends upon where in the process the sale happens.
For shelvable products, which includes most consumer goods, the product is produced, warehoused and then sent out for distribution and sale. The sale is the end point of the process.
For bespoke products and services, the sale happens first and then the product or service is built to the specifications of the buyer.
1
Today’s post is transcendent wisdom of the ages. Several sentences should be carved into granite and displayed in the public square. That said, here is my 2 cents.
My normal life is normal because it can be no other way. What passes for my political life is similar to my attitude about what you should do to your TV as opposed to rubbing feces into your eyes and ears on a regular basis. My default presumption with all politicians is that they are a disease cell. And I don’t think that exposing yourself to disease is a good thing. Participating in a political function is the equivalent of bathing in excrement. Only the insane look for cesspools to hop into. Politics won’t improve until the electorate is limited to only sane men with skin in the game. Just sayin’.
9
it isn’t cost free to view toxic material. but many here regularly do, and it shows in their comments.
Wow – that was hilarious – and so true, when you stop and think about it. Normal vs. political. Looking forward to the podcast – the short, worded intro is great. Re the stout beer, I coincidentally enough, had a Guinness with the nitro the other day and it seemed a little “thin” to me. TJ’s has had one I believe -maybe seasonal – that’s more of a chocolate stout (can’t remember name) that has more body imo.
1
I don’t know, Plato says the exact opposite. You don’t want a turnip farmer or a cobbler ruling. So how do we get the best rulers? Its not from the slime. But are our rulers being trained well? Is democracy, or whatever our system is, the best way to chose the best rulers?
Clearly no
3
there just might not be any good candidates
*at all* right now.
1
This was the breaking bad “fly” episode in podcast format.
Was using “Where the Streets have No Name” as the intro music at all related to Nancy Pelosi reading a poem she claims was written by Bono yesterday? I was hoping it would come out that Nancy got hoaxed and a dissident satirist sent her the poem, but it is so cringe, it probably was written by the ultimate globalist stooge from U2.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/17/nancy-pelosi-bono-poem-st-patricks-day-ukraine
3
I heard a joke once: how many Bonos does it take to change a light bulb? Just one – he holds the bulb in place and then the world revolves around him.
1
Southpark had Bono’s number, a long time ago…
1
You can say what you want about Bono, but in my opinion he was brilliant in Police Academy
What is the difference between a qualified person and an expert who (based on his qualifications) says that face diapers and lockdowns are good ideas?
I have always found politics to be the most ridiculous form of human interaction. There seems to be an agreed upon perception that politicians (especially those running for the first time) are honest, sincere individuals, with the good of “the people” as their highest priority. There is a carnival atmosphere to the whole process, especially at the higher level contests. And while in real life, people would tend to hold off on their judgement about another person, as far as honesty, intelligence, compassion work ethic, etc., in politics, the normies will conclude that a five minute interaction with a candidate, wherein the candidate smiles, laughs at their jokes, pats them on the back, and promises to always do the right thing, is enough time to form an opinion about someone. Not to mention wearing ridiculous hats and ribbons, putting signs in their yard, going to conventions and cheering and clapping for sloganeering that they would normally recognize as complete bullshit.
I remember during Bush II’s first term a friend of mine actually said that Bush seemed like the type of guy you could share a beer with at a barbecue. I couldn’t help thinking that that was the exact image his masters wanted Bush to exude to the masses. So, after we get 9/11 and invade Afghanistan and Iraq, at least we have a president we could drink a beer with, if you could ever get within 10 miles of him. I think the absolute absurdity of the political process has become obvious to more people since the Trump administration. And Biden has taken it to a whole other level. Whereas before, Americans thought that governance was too complicated to trust to themselves. And that is why they allowed political parties to select who the anointed would be. The political parties would only select the “best” candidates to represent us. And they would do the best job they could in an impossibly complicated process. Now we know that the whole process is a grift and designed to transfer all our wealth to other individuals, while the lying scum that we elect get ten percent of that grift for their participation in the scam. George Washington warned about political parties, but within a few years after his inauguration, they existed to the point that the actual legislative process was designed around political parties. And, since Trump and Biden, the illusion that they operate in our interest has been shattered. But, that doesn’t stop people from getting involved in the shitshow. Unfortunately, its going to take famine, devastating war IN America, or a SMOD to cure the problem. The ticks don’t want to be separated from their hosts.
5
I guessed right! Though I did grow up on a dairy farm.☺