Power of Political Story in Educating Our Own Old Brains

From JJ’s long and probably annoying comment in a diverse homeschool parent discussion dubbed, “A Re-Defining Moment”:

Spunky, I’m glad you brought that up, particularly in this context of whether words and rhetoric are “empty” without “substantive evidence.”

Refuting political attacks, rumors and even outright lies would logically seem to be a matter of substantive evidence, yet cognitive scientists are proving it’s really not. It’s power of story. And even as I say this and you might believe me, we both will continue to rationalize our own beliefs as strongly evidence-based even when they’re not. There IS substantive evidence for that as the way our minds really work — and that we won’t actually accept that evidence even as we think we do.

I’m one of the biggest champs of thinking and reason and research around, but I’m learning that my own brain doesn’t always tell me what it’s thinking.

Even as we research the facts to repeatedly reject an untrue rumor or “story” we are embedding it in our brains’ data bank about “reality.” These mechanisms are in FACT mostly unconscious and that’s the substantive evidence I find most enlightening to my own politics, both educational and presidential.

Language whether from blogs, ads, speeches or polls isn’t ever just what it seems.

Repeatedly calling a candidate “an empty suit” for example — is that in itself empty rhetoric of no consequence or does it influence our reasoning and therefore our actions?

I think the answer is both at the same time in different ways, so if we’re serious as home educators about substantive evidence and how it really works to change minds (for good or ill) then we ought to learn a lot more about how! And we ought to start with what’s going on in our OWN brains.

Anybody ever see The Manchurian Candidate? Various resonant frames and expressions shape our thought unconsciously as it is repeated and embedded, actively connecting to what’s already in our brains. All these scripts and frames and metaphors, right-seeming in the interconnected web of my brain’s other powerful stories, are drummed into our perception of reality through years of cultural programming — EDUCATION — like our own reality show, our operating system software.

Like it or not, know it or not, in all that magnificent working of our minds is also hidden virus and malware causing our brains to loop unbidden into storylines we don’t consciously choose or control but will rationalize to ourselves as “true” and “real” because that’s the way we experience them. And we just can’t understand why the other guy is such a liar!