[MD] Global Warming: Science or Politics?

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

How appropriate that this morning I stumbled upon an MSNBC report from about a
year ago titled "Political bias affects brain activity".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11009379/

"Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting
the facts get in the way, a new study shows.

And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their
point of view."

"We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally
engaged during reasoning," said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at
Emory University. "What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits
lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating
emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts."

The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased
conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted,
Westen and his colleagues say.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal
with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits
involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get
a fix, Westen explained.

The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making." ... 

""The result is that partisan beliefs are calcified, and the person can learn
very little from new data," Westen said."

[Arlo]
Shya, as if that's some shocking revelation. The question is, is there a way to
overcome this, or is this the base-norm of all "belief"? 

Is "consensus" always "conspiracy", "dissidence" always "treason", as measured
from the vantage point of Party Authority?

Peirce, in his seminal "The Fixation of Beliefs", has this to say about
"authority.

"Let the will of the state act, then, instead of that of the individual. Let an
institution be created which shall have for its object to keep correct
doctrines before the attention of the people, to reiterate them perpetually,
and to teach them to the young; having at the same time power to prevent
contrary doctrines from being taught, advocated, or expressed. Let all possible
causes of a change of mind be removed from men's apprehensions. Let them be
kept ignorant, lest they should learn of some reason to think otherwise than
they do. Let their passions be enlisted, so that they may regard private and
unusual opinions with hatred and horror."

Welcome to the Jungle.