Sometimes the simplest explanation of
something can have a profound impact. Years
ago Milton Friedman came up with his four
ways to spend money.

These are,

Spend your own money on yourself. This
the most efficient and productive way to spending money. The buyer gets exactly what
he wants. In a free market system, thisapproach is very common.

Spend your own money on someone
else.  This is a very efficient way to spend money, but less so than number one
Spend someone else’s money on yourself. This approach is quite a bit less efficient than numbers 1 and 2.

Spend someone else’s money on someone else’s money on yourself. This method has some efficiency but not as much a 1 or 2  .

Spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. This is how government spends money. This is quite reckless.

I am borrowing Friedman’s concept to show that there are also four ways to
communicate. The brain is complicated but some things it does are automatic and
other’s require in depth thought. I think it is safe to call the automatic brain the animal
brain and the bigger brain the thinking brain. The animal brain of a human functions in
about the same way it does in any other animal. This part of the brain is affectionately
often referred to as a person’s inner lizard. In the examples below, just for fun, I am
going to use the term inner lizard.

On a routine basis, most of what we do during the day results from what our inner lizard
insists we do. This is actually a good and necessary part of the brain. It makes sure we survive. Without it we would die. If a person is doing something like work a math problem or analyzing the meaning of a poem, the thinking brain gets the not and the inner lizard takes a break. Humans are generally unaware of which brain is in charge. There is something unique about the inner lizard. It does not do anything at all to determine whether or not what it believes is true or not.

One time my wife and I rescued a dog. There seemed to be nothing wrong with it at all.
One day I was in the yard and picked up a big stick to throw away. The dog suddenly
high tailed it and got as far away from me as it could. Clearly someone at one time or another whopped it with a stick. From then on, the dogs inner lizard deemed any human with a stick in his hand to be a serious threat.

A human’s inner lizard functions the same way. It does not do any analysis. It just comes
up with a conclusion. Hypnotism, is a technique whereby the thinking brain is sent on
vacation while the hypnotist addresses the inner lizard alone. Everything the hypnotist
tells it gets registered as an absolute indisputable fact. This is why advertisements target
a person’s inner lizard. Who wants a potential buyer to think real hard when they can be
convinced to buy without raising any questions. The inner lizard can keep you alive. It
can also get you into a lot of trouble when you genuinely need to thinks something
through.

With this in mind here are the for ways humans communicate. Thinking Brain to Thinking brain. A professor gives a lecture to students trying
very hard to understand.

Thinking Brain to Inner Lizard. A good salesman is likely to speak from his
thinking brain directly with a prospects inner lizard. This is the way politicians
communicate with constituents. This method is employed when the goal is to convince
another of something in the shortest period of time. That is politics and sales.

Inner Lizard to Thinking Brain. This occurs when a constituent request something
from an elected representative.

Inner Lizard to Inner Lizard. This is what occurs when two constituents talk
politics. You can search day and night without finding any sentient or thoughtful
interaction between two people hashing out a political argument. What you find are
conclusions used as arguments and nothing that can that can be substantiated.

What you get are arguments of the following nature. Trump good…Biden Bad or visa versa. Today we constantly hear NATO good……Putin bad. Russia is our problem. China is our problem and so on. No one talking like this ever takes the time to try and understand
why Putin is really doing something or what NATO’s concerns about Russia are really
base upon. Who needs to do that when the inner lizard already knows what NATO is
about and ‘what Putin is about.

In a contest between the thinking brain and the inner lizard, the inner lizard always wins. Its job is to make sure you survive.The first image shows a communication between an elected official and a constituent. The second image illustrates how two citizens communicate during a political discussion.

As cute as this is, I am not trying to be funny. Communication really works this way. One thing to loos for in coming days is an increase in suffering within the United States. Suffering does cause the thinking brain to kick in and question what the inner lizard thinks it believes. I am no fan of suffering. But is can shock people out of the mal-adaptive behavior they are engaging in. So, in that sense suffering does serve a purpose.

Visits: 7