Many progressive thinkers such as myself were stunned at
what seemed like the utter stupidity that led to the election of Donald Trump.
But then I realized it was not stupidity at all. It was typical human
intelligence. The key word is human.
Intelligence did not evolve so that animals in the
hominin lineage could understand the world better or keep facts straight in
their minds. Those are two of the functions of intelligence but not the most
important. The most important benefit of intelligence, during human evolution,
was so that some individuals could bend the facts, warp reality, and create
delusions that would trick other individuals into following, supporting, or
helping them. That is, the major function of human intelligence has always been
to gain individual advantages,
whether by using the truth or by using lies. (A good liar has to be very
intelligent.) Not what is best for a country or the world, but the individual. Trump acted in a supremely
effective fashion to gain advantages for himself.
Though it makes me sick to think about it, I must admit
that Donald Trump seems to have the genius of knowing how to manipulate people.
He knew exactly how to evoke a resonant sympathy with what is in the hearts of
most people: racism, sexism, and general hatred. All of his words were in the
service of these purposes. He knows that human intelligence does not primarily
care about facts, but rather beliefs and impressions. When he mocked disabled
people, he was evoking the old childhood memories of bullies on the
playground. He played our brains like
the keys of an organ. In this way he was able to completely deflect attention
away from the evil things he has done. He did not appeal to our love of
humankind or our logical understanding of the equality of races; instead he
stirred up hatred of anyone who is different from him. He got his followers
chanting “Make America Hate Again” (oops, sorry for the slip) without ever
specifying which Yesteryear America he was talking about. The Great Depression?
The Confederacy? The wars of extermination against Native Americans? Trump
disabled, in his followers, the very ability to ask or even recognize the
existence of such questions.
Democrats just don’t get this. Every time, over and over,
Democrats cite facts as if they matter. Well, apparently they don’t.
For me, the problem is that Trump has used the rest of us
as raw material for his own individual
expansion of power. But maybe the solution is also individual. What do I do
now? Maybe all I can do is pay attention to and enjoy the direct
responsibilities that I have, rather than to try to fix the world or to even
nudge it a little away from catastrophe. And who knows? Maybe in my writing and
teaching I will end up changing the minds of some people—not to get them to
share my political opinions (which I cannot do at a public university) but to
start using their brains in a more empathetic and logical fashion. I got up
this morning and taught two classes. I was really depressed but I managed to
make those two classes some of the best I have ever taught. I even invented, on
the spot, a new activity for student involvement in learning about how nerve
transmissions work. Maybe some of my readers and students will start noticing
that there is more to the world than just their deep visceral hatreds and
prejudices. And I can do this no matter who is president.
There might be a kind of truthful and pure intelligence
that evolved somewhere in the universe in some species; but that place is not
Earth and that species is not Homo
sapiens.
I also published this in my science blog. The two blogs
are actually different most of the time.
t I have, rather
than to try to fix the world or to even nudge it a little away from
catastrophe. And who knows? Maybe in my writing and teaching I will end up
changing the minds of some people—not to get them to share my political
opinions (which I cannot do at a public university) but to start using their
brains in a more empathetic and logical fashion. I got up this morning and
taught two classes. I was really depressed but I managed to make those two
classes some of the best I have ever taught. I even invented, on the spot, a
new activity for student involvement in learning about how nerve transmissions
work. Maybe some of my readers and students will start noticing that there is
more to the world than just their deep visceral hatreds and prejudices. And I
can do this no matter who is president.
There
might be a kind of truthful and pure intelligence that evolved somewhere in the
universe in some species; but that place is not Earth and that species is not Homo sapiens.
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