TrueLife - Spotlight on Marshall McLuhan #4: Media, Culture & the Human Mind

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Transcript:https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/52969347Speaker 0 (0s): Well, here we go. We are back TrueLife podcast on Thursday, Thursday to Thursday, Thursday night. Do you remember what we were talking about? Let me refresh your memory, my friends, but before I refresh your memory, let me refresh how awesome you are. You wake up, tell yourself your awesome. Give there's a little Pat on the back, you wake up in. The first thing that you thought about was something beautiful. Did you look out your window and see a rainbow? Oh my gosh. Look up this rainbow. It is so pretty, so many blues and purples. How about a, a little dollop, a little, a little kid walk in their dog. That's always a cool one. Right? Would be a butterfly on your shoulder. Maybe a nice whoosh, a nice calm, wind blowing over the plant's in your backyard. That's the whisper of the earth embracing you. Something like that. Right I'm not sure that last part flowed together. Like I wanted it to Well now, I guess I can refresh your memory. We we're doing a spotlight on mr. Marshall McLuhan and I left off, you know, where I left you. I left off at East meets West and the hemispheres, not just on our planet, but in our brain, right at the left hemisphere on the right hemisphere, we have the orient meets the Oxidental. You know what that makes me think of, you know, the town and country symbol, or at least that's what we call it in Hawaii or The I think more accurately its the yin and the yang, you know, it's a circle with a black Paisley in a white Paisley with the white Paisley has a little black.in it. And the black Paisley has a little white.in it. Think about that symbol for a minute. It's a really powerful symbol. One cannot exist without the other in it seems they are always flowing together and that pattern of the yin and the yang be it male and female or left brain, right brain. It seems to be a pattern of behavior as well as a symbol of what's happening. Think about our political parties in the U S aren't. They always like morphing into the other one. Like the Republican's are becoming the Democrats, Democrats are become when the Republicans of a concern become when the Democrats is just so symbolic of this circle of life, then the cycle of life in the more that I think about the symbol, the more that I realize how powerful that actually is, is really a mesmorizing to think about it. And I think it fits nicely here with this East meets West and the hemispheres. I just can't. It just seems so strange to me. The way our brain is constructed is also the way the world is constructed or is it because our brain is constructed one way. That's how we see the world. That's probably more accurate in a previous podcast. I talked about the similarities between supply chains and neural networks. Speaker 1 (3m 56s): I just Speaker 0 (3m 58s): It's one of those things that really gets me. I, I, I don't think we can really create anything in the outer world. That's not already is something that's been hardwired into us, but I'm kinda getting out into the muddy waters. Let's bring it full circle back to the brain and some of the Marshall McLuhan's ideas about processing information in the brain. So the brain on the outside as a, in a way in a grossly anatomical way, the brain appears to be what it seems Walnut like and symmetrical covered all over with convoluted fishers designed to give more tissue area. But underneath within that three pounds of whitish mush is a seeding electrochemical masse, which has the power to function asymmetrically. Normally of course we do not know it. If we decide to go for a jog, the left hemisphere through the Corpus callosum sends a signal to the right hemisphere to move both hips, synchronously synchronously. Is that correct? Speaker 1 (5m 11s): Say that route as well. Speaker 0 (5m 15s): We Right a capacity largely controlled by the left posterior lobe, the right hemisphere guides, the curly cues of the West Palmer method, millions of neural interfaces keep us coordinated. Although if we might take a slight detour, have thought the fact that neurons never actually connect or touch should be of immense interest to neuro physiologists. When an electrical impulse reaches the tip of a neuron's tail or axon, it discharge is a chemical called in your own transmitter. Let me pause there for Speaker 2 (5m 58s): A minute. If you remember yesterday, we talked about how the brain is not connected, but it interfaces. And if you remember my little diatribe, the world is not connected, but it interfaces. It's a very big distinction there. Everyone wants to talk about how everything is connected. It's the wrong word. Everything interfaces is this chemical message diffuses across the gap called the synapse to receptors located in the next cell triggering yet another electrical charge that courses through another axon until the message reaches millions of other neurons, the brain, it would appear as a mosaic that resinates in its discrete parts. That's the left side of the upper brain has a very specialist role. It is largely concerned with linguistic matters. The ability to order to quantify to label the right side of the neocortex is best in spatial tasks. The sense of the multi-dimensional the field of vision in each eyes divided between the left and right brain Josephine Sims tells us that the left hemisphere prefers units of neural information, which can be said to be similar and focal. Whereas the right brain area favors on integrated units have data the back or a posterior lobes of the upper brain, which deal with specific touch sensations and spatial information interact vigorously with the frontal lobes, which tend to abstractly play with the constraints of time and the ability to plan the world have now linked to the world of the future. And when I'm sorry, and then there is the lower brain, the various levels of earlier tissue, which covered and evolved over millions of years, the spinal cord and the brainstem that attend to such basics as heartbeat and respiration, the art complex reptilian, CDE of aggression, ritual, Tara territory, social hierarchy, the limbic system cradle of our emotions. Paul McClain says that the upper brain lives in an uneasy peace with the lower end midbrain. And what we may actually be talking about are three separately, interfacing cognitive systems. However, fascinating such a theory may be. We should focus the relationship between the cortical hemispheres, which in our view is the projection of consciousness, consciousness being the some interaction between oneself and the outside world. The hemispheres manifest their very nature by the way, in which they perceive and analyze the environment. Carl Sagan says this ability is the unique Mark of the primate, the area's of Berocca and Veronica in the left cortical hemisphere centralize our capacities for speech hearing and writing and thus mediate our expression of comprehension in language....

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scar's my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark. fumbling, furious through ruins

maze, lights my war cry Born from the blaze The poem is Angels with Rifles The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini Check out the entire song at the end of the cast Well, we are back

True Life podcast on Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday Thursday, Thursday Do you remember of what we were talking about. Let me refresh your memory, my friends. But before I refresh your memory, let me refresh how awesome you are. Did you wake up, tell yourself you're awesome,

give yourself a little pat on the back? Did you wake up and the first thing you thought about was something beautiful? Did you look out your window and see a rainbow? Oh my gosh, look at this rainbow. It's so pretty, so many blues and purples. How about a little dog, a little kid walking their dog?

That's always a cool one, right? Maybe a butterfly on your shoulder. Maybe a nice whoosh, a nice calm wind blowing over the plants in your backyard. The whisper of the earth embracing you. Something like that, right?

I'm not sure that last part flowed together like I wanted it to. Well, now I guess I can refresh your memory. We were doing a spotlight on Mr. Marshall McLuhan. And I left off, you know where I left you? I left off at East meets West in the hemispheres, not just on our planet, but in our brain, right? The left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. We have the Orient meets the Occidental. You know what it makes me think of? You know the

town and country symbol? Well, at least that's what we call it in Hawaii. Or the, I think more accurately, the yin and the yang you know it's a circle with a black paisley and a white paisley but the white paisley has a little black dot in it and the black paisley has a little white dot in it think about that symbol for a minute it's a really powerful symbol one can't exist without the other and it seems that they are always flowing together and that pattern of the yin and the yang be it male and female or left brain right brain it seems to be a pattern of behavior as well as a symbol of what's happening think about our political parties in the u.s aren't they always like morphing into the other one like the republicans are becoming the democrats the democrats are becoming the republicans

Republicans are becoming the Democrats. It's just so symbolic of the circle of life and the cycle of life. The more that I think about the symbol, the more that I realize how powerful it actually is, it's really mesmerizing to think about. And I think it fits nicely here with this east meets west in the hemispheres.

I just can't, it just seems so strange to me the way our brain is constructed. is also the way the world is constructed. Or is it because our brain is constructed one way, that's how we see the world. That's probably more accurate. In a previous podcast, I talked about the similarities

between supply chains and neural networks. I just, it's one of those things that really gets me. I don't think we can really create anything in the outer world that's not already something that's been

hardwired into us. But I'm kind of getting out into the muddy waters. Let's bring it full circle back to the brain and some of Marshall McLuhan's ideas about processing information in the brain. So the brain on the outside is a in a grossly

anatomical way. The brain appears to be what it seems, walnut-like and symmetrical, covered all over with convoluted fissures designed to give more tissue area, but underneath, within that three pounds of whitish mush, is a seething electrochemical mass, which has the power to function asymmetrically. Normally, of course, we do not know it.

If we decide to go for a jog, the left hemisphere, Corpus Colossum sends a signal to the right hemisphere to move both hips synchronously. Synchronously? Did I say that right? As we write a capacity largely controlled by the left posterior lobe, the right hemisphere guides the curly cues of the West's Palmer method. Millions of neural interfaces keep us coordinated.

although if we might take a slight detour of thought, the fact that neurons never actually connect or touch should be of immense interest to neurophysiologists. When an electrical impulse reaches the tip of a neuron's tail or axon, it discharges a chemical called a neurotransmitter. Let me pause there for a minute. If you remember yesterday, we talked about how the brain is not connected, but it interfaces.

And if you remember my little diatribe, the world is not connected, but it interfaces. It's a very big distinction there. Everyone wants to talk about how everything is connected. It's the wrong word. Everything interfaces. This chemical message diffuses across a gap called a synapse. to receptors located in the next cell, triggering yet another electrical charge

that courses through another axon until the message reaches millions of other neurons. The brain, it would appear, is a mosaic that resonates in its discrete parts. The left side of the upper brain has a very specialist role. It is largely concerned with linguistic matters, the ability to order, to quantify, to label,

The right side of the neocortex is best in spatial tasks. The sense of the multidimensional, the field of vision in each eye is divided between the left and right brain. Josephine Sims tells us that the left hemisphere prefers units of neural information, which can be said to be similar and focal, whereas the right brain area favors uninspefors unimisphemy. integrated units of data. The back or posterior lobes of the upper brain, which deal with specific touch sensations and spatial information, interact vigorously with the frontal lobes,

which tend to abstractly play with the constraints of time and the ability to plan, the world of now linked to the world of the future. And when, I'm sorry, And then there is the lower brain the various levels of earlier tissue which covered and evolved over millions of years The spinal cord and the brain stem that attend to such basics as heartbeat and respiration The R complex reptilian seat of aggression ritual Territ territory social hierarchy the limbic system cradle of

of our emotions. Paul McLean says that the upper brain lives in an uneasy piece with the lower and midbrain. And what we may actually be talking about are three separately interfacing cognitive systems. However, fascinating such a theory may be, we should focus on the relationship between the cortical hemispheres, which in our view is the projection of consciousness, consciousness being the some interaction between oneself and the outside world. The hemispheres manifest their very nature by the way in which they perceive and analyze the environment. Carl Sagan says this ability is the unique mark of the primate. The areas of Barocca and Vernica in the left cortical hemisphere centralize our capacities

for speech, hearing, and writing and thus mediate our expression of comprehension and language. The left hemisphere is the seat of hierarchies and categories of the linear, the mathematical, and the sequential. The ordering sense of the left brain is quantitative.

The dichronic, reading, writing, naming, within a perception of significant order. We are not surprised, therefore, or when neuroscientists place the guidance of complex sensory motor skills, like typing or adjusting a micrometer in that part of the cortex. The left hemisphere has mastery over the right side of the body. The right hemisphere dominates the left side.

Joseph Bogan in his seminal treatise, the other side of the brain, isn't quite sure what the right brain is. does, but he thinks it could very well be the birthplace of creativity. Certainly, it is the field of the qualitative, the synchronic, the spatial tactile, the musical, and the acoustic. It has been called the mute part of the brain because its language abilities are minimal. But there is considerable evidence that the right side analyzes by configuration and by metaphor. It does not think in sequence, but rather in terms of seizing the relationship between unlike parts of the environment. The right brain perceives the essence of an object through shape and feel rather than naming classification.

The right and left brain hemispheres actually pursue two different thinking and analytic processes. That is, two different ways of processing information. This state of affairs was described brilliantly by Robert J. Trotter writing on an investigation of the patterns of behavior among the Inuit or Eskimo people of Baffin Island in northeastern Canada. headed by anthropologist Solomon Katz of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania the investigation dealt specifically with one of the most fascinating

and fastest growing areas of brain research cerebral asymmetry or hemispheric dominance he called attention to the fact that those living in the Arctic wastes have a well-documented a to find their way out of difficult wilderness situations as well as to navigate over vast areas of unmarked territory of snow and ice.

The land itself appears to have given them a special viso-spatial ability related to an intricately developed right hemisphere. But of more importance in their lifestyle and art objects, there seems to be a well-defined cooperation between the right and left brain. How would you just take in a little moment here? How would you rate your thinking? Do you think you are more analytical? Or are you more right-brained? More on the intuitive side.

More on the creative side. How about the people in your family? if you were to just take a moment, do you think you could identify people who are more left-brained and more right-brained? After you've done that, how about your immediate circle of friends? How about the culture you're in?

Are you able to identify that? It's a good question. Back to Mr. Marshall McLuhan. Among the Inuit carvers, all of whom were right-handed. The left-hand cradles the work, moves it into the new positions, and feels its progress,

while the right-hand precisely carves the details and holds the various carving tools. Even when a tool could be placed down, the left hand carried out the repositioning of the stone in space. Also, there was a striking proponent. condorance of holding the stone in the left visual field. These observations suggest hemispheric symmetry, or at least a high degree of cooperation between the hemispheres.

Katz finds an almost perfect relationship between the right hand doing the detailed analytical kinds of activities and the left hand doing all the spatial and touch activities. I bet you didn't think about that, huh? I know I didn't. So if the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, that would make sense for the majority of people

that are right-handed, that your right-hand is doing the detailed carving or the detailed work. While your left hand, controlled by the right side of the brain, is doing the work of placing, the object on which you're working on in the right spatial, setting it up in the right position. It's a fascinating way to understand how the brain is working by looking at the examples of complicated

maneuvers with your hands. Back to the back to the interview. Similarly, what the Baffin Island investigators discovered among the Inuit people was a language reflecting a high degree of spatial right hemisphere orientation. Linguistic studies rated as being the most synthetic, integrative of languages. American English is at the other end of the same scale and is rated as the most analytic left hemisphere. Inuit sculptures, lithographs and tapestries are without a parent. linear or three-dimensional analytic orientation.

The culture is odd-ile, tactile to a high degree. Hence, if you are an Inuit, your mental faculties have a sensory preference towards the right hemisphere and a world of sensuous touch and echoing ritual form. The right leads the left. If you are from the west and particularly a well urbanized person, your mind will tend to favor the left and interplay with a somewhat subservient right. With that in view, one can read Schroeder's charted diagram of the left and right brain. Because the strongest feature of the left hemisphere in the West is linearity and sequentiality. There are good reasons for calling it the visual quantitative side of the brain.

its most conspicuous role seems to be that of labeling, of labeling. How often do labels get us in trouble? It's such an easy way to judge someone by giving them a label. That guy is a this. That guy's a Republican. That guy's a Democrat. That guy is a dummy. That guy thinks this.

That guy's a truck driver. That guy's an educator. That guy's an academic. You know, it's, it's these labels that get us in trouble, even though sometimes it's those labels that save us, right? Hey, that guy's, that guy's a criminal. Stay away. It just goes to show and I think Marshall McLuhan's going to make the point here in a little bit that both hemispheres when not working together are incomplete. But I'm getting a ahead of myself. I don't want to ruin the ending for everybody. I don't want to be that guy.

See what I did there? I put a little label on myself. Because the strongest feature of the left hemisphere in the west is linearity and sequentiality. There are good reasons for calling it the visual quantitative side of the brain. Its most conspicuous role seems to be that of labeling because the dominant features of the right hemisphere are the simultaneous holistic and synthetic. There are good reasons for identifying it as the acoustic, qualitative side. Palpable imagery, not bound by time. Visual space as elucidated in Euclidean geometry has the basic characteristics of linear, lineality, connectedness, homogenesis, and stasis.

These characteristics are not found. in any of the other senses. On the other hand, acoustic space has the basic character of a sphere whose focus or center is simultaneously everywhere and whose margin is nowhere. An accident to the left hemisphere

might limit speech or produce aphasia, but damage exclusively to the right hemisphere does not usually distinguish. disrupt linguistic abilities, but can lower performance in spatial tasks. Simple musical abilities, recognition of familiar objects and faces, and bodily self-awareness. This is another way of saying that visual and acoustic space are always present in any human situation. Even if Western civilization has, through the agency of the alphabet, tamp down our awareness of the acoustic space. acoustic. The latter is the invisible counter environment that forms the background against

which the civilization of the written word is seen. Christian von. This is a tough one. Christian von Erinfelds, the originator of Gestaltist structuralism, clearly showed that configurations exist only because of our tendency to see figure against ground. to prefer geometrically perfect forms against irregular shapes. Trotter in the Other Hemisphere essay selects a third world or non-literate society for observation and illustration points also to the fact that societies that have not developed the use of the phonetic alphabet tend to adopt the same third world posture. The third world is mainly oral slash a oral, even when it cultivates some non-phonetic form of writing, such as Sanskrit. On the other hand, first world countries tend to be visual, left hemisphere, even when most of their population is declining into a semi-literate state. such as the case today

when the visual culture of industrial societies has been greatly influenced in an acoustic direction by the environment of electronic technologies okay that was the background are you guys ready we're about to

kind of dig in a little bit deeper into the theory of our declining cognitive ability brought in by the electronic technologies The dominance of the left or right hemisphere in terms of controlling the principle problem solving of the brain at any one time is largely dependent on environmental factors so that in the west the lineality of the left hemisphere is supported

for example by a complex service environment of rows and transportation the logical or rationalistic activities in legal administration The dominance of the right hemisphere, on the other hand, depends upon an environment of a simultaneous resonating character, a point that we shall develop in some detail later on when discussing the oriental view of space. Such dominance is normal in oral societies, keeping in mind that the oral is closely related to the tactile,

particularly among preliterates. Today, our universal environment of simultaneous electronic flow of constantly interchanging information favors the sensory preference of the right hemisphere. The first world is aligning itself, however, gradually with the third world. Western man depends on his capacity for conceptualizing proportional space to confirm measurable fact. The Inuit, as indeed do all peoples of the Oriental disposition find truth is given not by seeing is believing, but through the oral tradition, mysticism, intuition, all cognition.

In other words, not simply by observation and measurement of physical phenomena, to them the ocularly visible apparition is not nearly so common as the auditory one. Hearer would be a better title than seer for their holy men. Our friends in the eastern hemisphere have a capacity for instant readjustment to all psychic and social conditions, which is related to seeing life as a multi-sensory equilibrium with no ordering priorities. The ground of experience is constantly tuned. All ground, no figures, the acoustic mode. Westerners are hung up on a fixed point of view where ground is fragmented, engendering a desire for hierarchy. All figures, no ground. Robotism is the ability to be equally empathetic in many

areas at once. Angalism is is being chained to a fixed point of view without ground. Plato's early struggles were centered on destroying the oriental bias of Greek tribalism. He emphasized left brain cognition over right or angleism. Plato saw the intrusion of the memetic and resonant characters from the mental feeder of the right hemisphere as a kind of psychic poison or threat to the left hemisphere academy with its goal of an individualized polis. You threw yourselves into a situation of Achilles. You identified with his grief or his anger. You yourself became Achilles and so did the reciter to whom you listened.

Thirty years later, you could automatically quote what Achilles had said or what the the poet had said about him. Such enormous powers of poetic memorization could be purchased only at the cost of total loss of objectivity. Plato's target was indeed an educational procedure and a whole way of life. This kind of drama, this way of reliving experience in memory, instead of analyzing and understanding it, is for him, the enemy. The empathy of the right hemisphere is incompatible with the detachment of the left hemisphere. That is why the poetic state of mind is for Plato, the arch enemy, and it is easy to see why he considered this enemy so formidable. He is entering the lists against centuries of habituation in

rhythmic memorized experience. He asks of men, that instead they should examine this experience and rearrange it, that they should think about what they say instead of just saying it. And they should separate themselves from it instead of identifying with it. They themselves should become the subject who stands apart from the object and reconsiders it and analyzes it and evaluates it instead of just imitating it. The alphabet created a lineal and visual environment of services and experiences, everything from architecture and highways to representational art,

which contributed to the ascendancy of dominance of the left or lineal hemisphere. This conjecture is consistent with the findings of the Russian neurophysiologist A.R. Luria, who found that the area of the brain, which controls linear sense, sequencing and hence mathematics and scientific thinking is located in the prefrontal region of the left hemisphere. The mental process for writing, a word entails still another specialization. The mental process for writing a word entails still another specialization. Putting the letters in the proper sequence to form the word, Lashley discovered many years ago that sequential analysis involved a zone of the brain different from that employed for spatial analysis.

In the course of our extensive studies, we have located the region responsible for sequential analysis in the anterior regions of the left hemisphere. Luria's result show that the expression, linear thinking is not merely a figure of speech, a mode of activity, which is peculiar to the anterior regions of the left hemisphere of the brain. His results also indicate that the use of the alphabet, with its emphasis on linear sequence, stimulates mastery of this area of the brain in cultural patterns. Let me just break it up there a little bit. I know it gets quite a bit technical, but the point is the side of the brain,

you use that you're been depending where you're born you know they say you can't pick your parents and that you usually are a product your religious beliefs are a product of where you were born the same thing is true of your culture the same thing is true of how you process information and it has profound effects for the way in which the culture you you're you are born into moves forward. It also has profound effects for you as an individual, especially if you want to excel in your culture. If you want to become influential in your culture. If you want to live a life worth living, it's imperative that you understand how your culture is processing information

and where you fit into that culture and understand the thoughts you think the thoughts you think may actually be only half of what you think. Does that make sense? If you're honest with yourself and you can figure out and understand that the left side of your brain,

the analytical side of your brain, is not always congruent with the right side of your brain, the right hemisphere, then you can understand that the thoughts you think are only half the story. If you could truly wrap your mind around it, you'll be able to see the world more clearly. Not only the world you live in more clearly, but you'll be much more capable of understanding what other people

are trying to describe to you. you'll be much more capable of understanding how someone actually feels if when you listen to them you can listen to their speech is it is it a very analytical speech or is it more of a creative type of content you know what i mean by that like think about the guy at the professor at college that is always giving you these scientific analytical terms versus the art teacher at college that's speaking in this flowery rhetoric both of whom are speaking from different parts of the brain they're processing information different it doesn't make either one of them wrong it just makes both of them incomplete think about the way we just

describe our political parties. They're far left. They're far right. Maybe a better example is that this person is processing all the information in the right. This person is processing all the information in the left. And thus getting back full circle to the yesterday's podcast about when you're going to speak to people, try and find some metaphors that can be used simultaneously with your analytical facts. Thus, you are talking to the whole brain. Back to the article, Loria's observations provide an understanding of how the written alphabet, with its lineal structure, was able to create the conditions conducive to the development of Western science, technology, and rationality. The alphabet separated and isolated visual space from the many other kinds of sensory space involved in the senses of smell, touch, kinesthesia, and acoustics. abstract visual space is lineal homogeneous connected and static when however neurophysiologists assign a vague spatial property to the right hemisphere they are referring to the simultaneous and discontinuous properties of the odd aisle tactile and multiple other spaces of the censorium

Sensorium. The Euclidean space of analytic geometry is a concept of the left hemisphere of the brain, while the multi-dimensional spaces of the holistic sensorium are percepts of the right hemisphere of the brain. Where the phonetic alphabet comes into play, the visual faculty tends to separate from the other senses, making possible the perception of the brain. of abstract Euclidean visual space, which represents an extreme dislocation or disassociation from the other senses.

The history of the rise of Euclidean geometry, especially in the time of ancient Alexandria, offers a direct parallel with the rise of the phonetic alphabet, phonetic literacy. And phonetic literacy in turn is co-existent and coextensive with the rise of rational logic. Permanities is the first visual quantitative philosopher.

And he succeeds the pre-Socratics who were right hemisphere, acoustic qualitative philosophers. The phonetic alphabet obsolesed the oral culture of Greece, as is explained in preface to Plato by Eric Havelock. Both pre-Socratics and Sophists then, by the close of the fifth century before Christ, if the apology does indeed reproduce the idiom of that period, were accepted by public opinion as representative of the intellectualist movement. If they were called philosophizers, it was not for their doctrines as such, but for the kind of vocabulary and syntax which, which they used and the unfamiliar psychic energies that they represented. Sophists, presocratics, and Socrates had one fatal characteristic in common.

They were trying to discover and to practice abstract thinking. There is a whole lot of information. There's a lot to impact there. There's a lot of questions I kind of have getting into this part. Let me back up just for a minute and kind of go over some parts that I find incredibly fascinating. The Euclidean space of analytic geometry is a concept of the left hemisphere of the brain, while the multi-dimensional spaces of the holistic sensorium are percepts of the right hemisphere of the brain. Okay, we're good there.

With the phonetic alphabet, where the phonetic alphabet comes into play, the visual faculty tends to separate from the other senses, making possible the perception of abstract Euclidean visual space. I got us got to read it again to really break this down. Where the phonetic alphabet comes into play, the visual faculty tends to separate from the other senses, making possible the perception of abstract Euclidean space, which represents an extreme dislocation or disassociation from the senses.

So the phonetic alphabet helps, the phonetic alphabet allows us, you and me. It allows us to break apart the visual faculty from the other senses. And since the alphabet isolates the visual ability, the phonetic alphabet makes Euclidean space possible. It helps us to dislocate or disassociate from the other senses. The phonetic alphabet is a way for us to isolate the visual geometry. It gives rise to the Euclidean geometry. That, think about that as like if you want to go to the gym and you just want to work on your bicep and you just, what if you just did curls all day long? Every day, all day. You'd have like these huge biceps, but you'd have like chicken legs.

Like your, you know, your chest might be a little big, but in some ways, I don't, I can understand the power of, of logic. And I, don't get me wrong. I'm, I'm so grateful that we've had these tremendous thinkers that have been able to move us forward in so many ways. However, I, I begin to think, is it possible that just overworking that one particular side, you know, this phonetic alphabet, is it possible that our logic has become such a huge muscle that it's problematic for the rest of us? Does that make sense? I don't know if I'm explaining that accurately. It's fascinating to think about. I've got to have to mow it over a little bit more. The power of the phonetic alphabet to translate other languages into itself, to act as a porous matrix of information flow, is matched by its power to invade right hemisphere oral cultures.

In the ordinary way, these tribal right hemisphere cultures are holistic and entire and resistant to penetration by other preliterate cultures. But the specialist qualities of the left hemisphere phonetic alphabet have long offered the only instrumental means of invading and taking over oral societies. One could make the case that those with the phonetic alphabet have in fact conquered indigenous people throughout most of recorded history. Although there's been plenty of battles between tribes of indigenous people forever, it seems that one could make the argument that the true weapon that won the war for conquering people was the phonetic alphabet. Propaganda cannot succeed where people have no trace of Western culture. These words of Jakez Illul in propaganda draw attention to one of the crucial features of Western history. The Christian Church dedicated to propaganda and propagation adopted Greco-Roman phonetic literacy from its earliest days.

The perpetution of Greco-Roman literacy and civilization became inseparable from Christian missionary and education. activity. Paradoxically, people are not only unable to receive, but are unable to retain doctrinal teaching without a minimal of phonetic or Western culture. Here is the observation of Elul on this matter. In addition to a certain living standard, another condition must be met. If man is to be successfully propagandized, he needs at least a minimum. of culture. Propaganda cannot succeed where people have no trace of Western culture. We are not speaking here of intelligence. Some primitive tribes are surely intelligent, but have an intelligence foreign to our concepts and customs. A base is needed. For example, education. A man who cannot read

will escape propaganda, as will a man who is not interested in reading. People, People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress. They still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory. They condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates. They think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable. For the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads,

to reflect on and judge what one. reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning and even destroy certain automatic qualities of memory and observation. But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and to consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps 90% know how to read, but they do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and imminent value to the printed word, or conversely reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe or disbelieve in toto what they read. And as such, people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest reading matter.

They are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted for propaganda. Whoa! Did you hear what I just read? Think about that. If man is to be successfully propagandized, he needs at least a minimum of culture. How about this whole culture war that we constantly have going on? It's not about intelligence.

Some primitive tribes are surely intelligent, but have an intelligence foreign to our concepts and customs. A man who cannot read will escape propaganda. How about that? It just goes to show you a lot about our education system, especially in a lot of the public schools. Don't get me wrong. There are some phenomenal teachers. And if you're one of them, I love you. Thank you for what you do.

if you're an uncle a mom a dad an aunt a grandma a grandpa you're a teacher and if you get a few moments alone with your child or your grandchildren and you're focusing on reading make sure that when you are reading with your kids or your grandkids or your niece or nephew that you're asking them questions about why why do they do that what happened there is that true Right? Not only is it important for the kids to be able to read, but it's more important for them to be able to think critically about what they. People used to think that learning to read evidence to human progress, they still celebrate and they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory. They condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates. They think that reading is a road to freedom.

All this is debatable. For the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads. To reflect on and judge what one reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning. Outside of being able to understand what you're reading, reading has no meaning. So fascinating.

Phonetic illiteracy in Athens and Greece was an intensely disruptive force, as explained by Philip Slater in the glory of Hera and by Carl Popper in the open society and its enemies. Slater is concerned with the breakup of Greek family life and the rise of the new democratic and competitive individualism. There was a pronounced reaction against all the new qualities of mind. and how spirit released by the impact of literacy. Popper asks, how can we explain the fact that outstanding Athenians,

like Thucydides, stood on the side of reaction against these new developments? He notes that, while many of the ambitious young nobles became active, although not always reliable members of the Democratic Party, some of the most thoughtful and gifted, resisted its attraction. The open society was already in existence and had, in practice, begun to develop new values,

new equalitarian standards of life. The big tribal leaders of Athens tried hard to resist what, in effect, was a violent transition from the holistic, acoustic, right hemisphere institutions of their oral society to the fragmented and scientific basis of the visual revolution evoked by the literal activation of the left hemisphere. Plato was by no means happy about the effects of literacy and the rise of aggressive commercial interests.

Although the patriotic movement was partly the expression of the longing to return to more stable forms of life, to religion, to decency, law, and order. It was itself morally rotten. Its ancient faith was lost and was largely replaced by a hypocritical and even cynical exploitation of religious sentiments. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Nialism as painted by Plato in the portraits of Caliclus and Therismaccus.

I don't know if I said that right. Plato in the portraits of Colossils and Therosomachus could be found if anywhere among the young patriotic aristocrats who, if given the opportunity, became leaders of the Democratic Party. The same literacy which destroyed the traditional institutions of Athens created an abstract rationalism inseparable from the new dominance of the left hemisphere. But at this time, in the same generation to which Thucydides belonged, there arose a new faith in reason, freedom, and the brotherhood of all men. The new faith, and as I believe, the only possible faith of an open society. Karl Popper had no awareness of the role of literacy in the revolution from Greek tribalism to Greek individualism. or in separating the individual from the group. Sums up, we can say that the political and spiritual revolution,

which had begun with the breakdown of Greek tribalism, reached its climax in the 5th century. With the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, it had developed into a violent class war, and at the same time into a war between the two leading cities of Greece. This individualism may be what made Greco-Roman institutions attractive to Christianity since Christian Revelation stresses the private responsibility of all individuals in its doctrine of the resurrection.

The phonetic alphabet creates the only environmental services and institutions which foster the dominance of the left hemisphere. Try and think about what is going on today. And I think you could also make the case of this increased tribalism brought about by social media. And what is social media? Social media is this hot medium that speaks directly to the right side of the brain. I think we can draw an almost congruent parallel with what was said a moment ago. we can say that the political and spiritual revolution of today has begun with the breakdown of

American individualism right we are now part of this tribal society based upon the color you wear whether it's blue or red or gender or sexual orientation. There's all these tribes. Instead of just being one group of individuals in a country were fractured among these

manufactured abstract ideas of personalities, of ways of life. It's amazing to me to think that the reason reason we are so divided might be the way we're processing information. You know, if you look at like a tree-hugging hippie versus a trailer park redneck, they're pretty similar, right? They both want to get those, they both want to get those sideways.

They both probably have not a whole lot of money. they probably both think the system sucks for them, but yet they're diametrically opposed to one another. That's the far left and the far right. That's two sides of the brain. You can see two sides of the brain when you look at a hippie and a redneck. It's like looking at the analytical and the conceptual. And if they just had a corpus callosum to connect them,

maybe that's Joe Rogan. Maybe he's the corpus callosum. of political, I don't know, of political identity or, I don't know, you know what I'm trying to say, right? Like we're so similar in what everybody thinks is just we have a different way to solve it. And probably neither of those ways is accurate. Hey, let's get rid of these damn Democrats. Hey, let's get rid of these damn Republicans. It doesn't matter.

They're both doing the same thing. There's got to be a different way. I think. All right, let's get back here. This individualism may be what made Greco-Roman institutions attractive Christianity. The dominance of the left hemisphere, analytic and quantitative, and by dominant, we mean the ability of the left brain to lead the right brain in the context of Western culture. Entails the submission or suppression of the right hemisphere. And so, for example, our intelligence tests exist only for measuring left hemisphere achievement and take no cognizance of the existence of the qualitative right hemisphere. The present electronic age in its inescapable

confrontation with simultaneity presents the first serious threat to the 2,500-year dominance of the left hemisphere. Whoa! That is amazing. right? I am going to leave it right there for today and I hope that you listening to this are enjoying your day. I hope that you choose to use your words wisely when in conversation with other people and if I can drive home a point try as an experiment in your conversations in all your relationships from here on out to be a little bit analytical and a little bit metaphorical.

Try to work those together in a conversation and see if that will allow you to sail through life gracefully with the wind beneath your wings. And I'm willing to bet if you do that, 99% of your communication will be better. I love you.

Have a good day. Tomorrow's Friday. Woo-hoo.