Carrots & Sticks, Part 1
The body, mind, and spirit of the human animal are easily hijacked by fear and greed.
The gatekeepers… the preachers, politicians, and other charlatans… understand this quite well… deftly employing a host of psychological weapons to sell the desperate and perplexed a hodgepodge of nonsense, lies, and perversions.
Incapable of directing their own attention, “the faithful” are as vulnerable as… and possess no more dignity than… Pavlov’s salivating dogs or Skinner’s mindlessly-pecking pigeons.
Religion atheism Christianity classical conditioning faith Islam Judaism operant conditioning pavlov Religion skinner
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Frank J Peter View All →
A uniquely burdened and blessed citizen of the world thinking and acting out loud!
Hi Frank, I was “pleasantly” surprised to see you describing the human as “body, mind and spirit” that being exactly how I was taught by the Teachers to understand myself if I would consider myself a human being. There is a balance here, the trick is to know how to attain that. As for the rest of your post, I am in full agreement with you, having been there and extricated myself from it (or so I like to think) though at times it remains a struggle in discernment and “courage” to act counter to what is expected. Thanks for all of your brilliant, short, if not so easily digestible, bits of necessary wisdom.
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Thanks so much for the resonance and the most kind words of appreciation.
I am still extricating myself… and still learning how the vast and insidious network of carrots and sticks that engulfs us puts us all at risk… not just in the realm of of religion… but in politics, economics, the media, education, and more.
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Carrot & sticks….
Dog’s salivating theory…
Conditioning theory…
Based on the pattern of human behavior. They repeat a special act every time if it is beneficial.
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Yep… and the paradox is this: The only humans who can inoculate themselves from the insidious system of bogus rewards and punishments that engulf us are those who appreciate and admit that we are ALL vulnerable to a more profound degree than we care to admit.
And so, I advocate for early and continuing education in the fundamentals of Psych 101, including the deep understanding of Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning… all part of any truly educated person’s repertoire. I, for one, think it should be part of the standard curriculum starting in preschool…. not postponed until college, as is the norm.
Alas, we still have lots of work to do to rescue so many vulnerable brains hypnotized by the boob tube and one-armed bandits… by materialism and celebrity worship… by the feel-good gurus, motivational speakers, and other promisers of overnight success… not to forget our old “friends” the preachers and politicians.
By the way, when I finish this series “Meditations on Faith”, I have another series titled “Meditations on Education”. Stay tuned.
Thanks and peace.
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