Indignation High

[phantom power]

I had been meaning to post something on this after reading Existence. As usual, the inter-tubes beat me to it:

Wired: The book also explores the idea that self-righteous indignation might be a form of addiction. Could you talk a bit about that?

Brin: I actually gave a talk at the National Institute for Drug and Addiction on this very topic. Believe it or not, I still do science. I was trained as an astrophysicist, but I do guerrilla raids into little areas of science that are outside my expertise, and I’m pleased to be a member of a civilization that puts up with that. The boundaries that were so rigidly defended — guild boundaries of scientific specialty — are no longer as fiercely defended as they were, and one piece of evidence of that is that we just won the right to establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UCSD. It’s going to be very exciting. And all the deans from all the divisions and departments at UCSD signed on to participate in this bold new endeavor that will study imagination and how it works in human beings, from neuroscience to the arts to education — especially education — and how to engender and encourage it. So keep your eyes and ears open for more information about the Arthur Clarke center.

But the notion of self-righteous indignation being a drug high seems to develop naturally out of recent scientific results that show that addiction is actually the most natural of human processes. You’ve heard the phrase “addicted to love.” Well, you can deliberately enter less salubrious mental states. You can deliberately go to Las Vegas, and the slot machines are now tuned to track the pattern of your behavior at the slot machine and change their rewards pattern so you start getting more rewards when it calculates that you’re about to stand up and give up and leave. So there’s gambling, thrill addiction. Well, it turns out that there’s substantial evidence that self-righteous indignation is one of these drug highs, and any honest person knows this. We’ve all been in indignant snits, self-righteous furies. You go into the bathroom during one of these snits, and you look in the mirror and you have to admit, this feels great! “I am so much smarter and better than my enemies! And they are so wrong, and I am so right!”

And if we were to recognize that self-righteous indignation is a bona fide drug high, and that yes, just like alcohol, some of us can engage in it on occasion — as a matter of fact, when I engage in it, I get into a real bender — but then say, “Enough.” If we were to acknowledge this as a drug addiction, then it might weaken all the horrible addicts out there who have taken over politics in America, and allow especially conservatism to return to the genteel, calm, intellectual ways of Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/08/geeks-guide-david-brin/all/

[Progressive dog]

1. Barry Goldwater and Bill Buckley?

What about the real conservative heroes like Saint Ronnie, or those from an earlier age like Calvin Coolidge or Herbert Hoover. Intellectual ways?

[phantom power]

2. I think what he's getting at is...

an epidemic of "outrage addiction" has eroded our discourse in such a way that actual cooperation on anything is nearly impossible. It hasn't always been that way in history. Note, that isn't the same thing as saying that conservatives were more right, or that liberals agreed with them more. Just that there were channels that people used to arrive at useful reality-based conflict resolutions. And those channels don't seem to be used much these days.

As Brin mentions, it seems quite likely that outrage addiction is a feature of human nature, as is the general mechanism for becoming addicted to almost any activity or mental state. Maybe all demagogues through history have been indignation addicts, who derived useful political gains from the enjoyment they derived from political ranting.

[Progressive dog]

3. If it's what he's getting at

I disagree.

[hunter]

4. It does explain so much that goes on in Energy & Environment...

... or Gun Control & RKBA...

... hell, so much of DU.

[Curtland1015]

5. Agreed.

...I'm guilty of it sometimes myself.

[lunatica]

6. I came to this conclusion at least 40 years ago

It's pretty self evident in highly dysfunctional families like mine. Why else would family members keep having the same unwinnable fight again and again and again, year in and year out? Because they needed a fix to that addiction is why. Science is now proving me right. I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed. Strong emotions release all kinds of chemicals in the brain and into the body. Adrenaline is addictive.