Human Complexity Lab

As we in the United States approach midterm elections. We Americans are given the sad choice of either Democratic or Republican representation.

As Chris Matthews plainly attempted to decipher the difference between Democratic Iraq policy and the current administration's policy. Watch Howard Dean wiggle around.

As this blog is about the nexus between neuro-biology and technological culture, the Democrats need to fork the development of the War on Terror. In open source development, or any software development forking is when another party makes significant changes to how a platform functions. Primarily but not exclusively changing the definitions of specific functions.

 The forking must be the War on Terror is a psychological warfare, one were actions like Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, or spying on ourselves, or X-Raying our our naked bodies in public, or dumping white phosphorus on the citizens of iraqi towns, or secret prisons, or simply occupying a Middle East Muslim nation, changes the thought process of the intended neuromarket of minds.

These acts, all done for "our safety" causes more harm, not just idealogical harm, but in the global neuromarket of minds. As you increase mortality salience, (I am mortal I fear death) the complex comprimises of the cerbral cortex, begins to give way to the base instincts of the amygdala.

And why not? Evolutionary speaking, if you are being chased by a tiger, do you want the reptilian brain to make microsecond decisions or the paleo-mammaliant o think how the orange stripes on the tiger remind you of a persian carpet at home.

But let's get back to the fork in the road.

Democrats need to articulate that the War on Terror is about connections, culture, and actions. Blowing up arab villages, with even the most "surgical" weaponary is a creating blowback from the War on Terror.

To decrease Terror, simply decrease Terror...

Because the global neuromarket of minds will polarize, not along heady cerebral ideas of democracy or cabinet posts, but along ethnic and religous lines. We know this based on 100's of studies in Terror Management Theory.

We protect our own. We defend the invincible center, when mortality salience increases. We do so as to extend our line of selfish genes. Our minds have simple built in neural networks that quickly delineate US versus THEM. Or as social psychologists say "in and out groups".

So the only fix in Iraq is to decrease the mortality salience, decrease the glucocorticoids, and get the lights, water, and oil running as fast as possible.

Iraq solution is right in their backyard. It's called Sunni Saudi Arabia, and other moderate middle east nations who do not want the Iran-Iraq alliance to become too strong.

Sadly Iraq the formerly 2nd largest producer of oil, being offline, helps both Russian crude with smaller margins as well as Saudi Arabia with huge margins. So a complex set of incentives and manuevers may be out side the skill set of Dr. Rice. But not outside the rhetoric of Democratic leaders.  

Thus the deadline or timetable is not for the Iraqi people it is for the entire middle east. There is of course alot of work to get a summit of arab nations to help Iraq. But with Turkey dealing with its border problems with Kurdistan rebels and the rise of Shia Iran next to Saudi Arabi, the very least Dean could have delineated is assemblage of a plan.

Forking the War on Terror from Iraq, into a globally connected, psychological based campaign of emotional shocks to the hearts and minds of poor disenfranchised muslims is just the beginning.

The Democrats need to explain, that Gitmo, the torture, the occupation is fueling the hearts and minds of British subjects who instead of seeing themselves as subjects of the British Empire, instead as fMRI's and social psych tests reveal, the reptilian brain we all have will strike out against THEM...