The Mindset and Psychology of Brexit. Blog #31

This week I will address for the first time Mindset and Psychology from the perspective of Brexit and Politics in general. Many of my colleagues may disagree with my action but I do believe that since Politics dictate the dynamic of a society thus influence everyone daily in pretty much all aspects of our life, it is important and useful to understand the whys and hows of it.

I do expect reactions of all sorts and I am prepared to converse with intelligent people who are willing to dialogue productively. I will kindly ignore any comment that brings growth to neither party however as I do understand the limitation of the human mind within the context of Politics too often, and I have no interest in wasting energy or time entertaining verbal conflicts.

What are the EU anyway ?

There are many ways to look at it. The most overlooked aspect of the EU in the context of Brexit and as found on Wikipedia:

After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the extreme nationalism which had devastated the continent. In a speech delivered on 19 September 1946 at the University of Zürich, Switzerland, Winston Churchill went further and advocated the emergence of a United States of Europe. 

The EU is essentially an evolution of a system put in place to prevent a resurgence of the divisions that started both World War I and World War II, and that would lead very probably to another World War as taught by history if not contained.

Why do people want Brexit ?

Sovereignty, immigration and the English National Identity seem to have been the main motivators for people to vote Brexit. I will not go into numbers and statistics because it was never about the truth, it was always about what truth we are prepared to believe.

Enter the Reticular Activating System

There is a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). It is essentially a network of neurons clusters located throughout the brainstem that acts as filters to focus on seeking evidences that confirm what we already believe. The brain can be exposed to up to 2 million bits of data at any given time but can only process so much. The RAS only allows through things that it deems important so the brain does not go into information overload. What we focus most on is what is perceived as important. And there lies the formula of confirmation bias:

Belief > Self Talk > Proof > Belief > Repeat

A belief inherited by our upbringing and surrounding emulates a corresponding inner self talk. Because the self talk focuses on a specific information the brain thinks it is important and the RAS will look out for more of the same informations out there to back up and expand that original belief. Now that the mind has located those informations from outside those informations turn into proof. The more proof we gather the more we reinforce the original belief. And as we repeat that loophole, each cycle consolidates that reality, the onlytruth we know a little bit more each time.

Algorithm is another artificial Reticular Activating System

We all know that social medias like Facebook use algorithms to recognise key words, likesands links button pressed, and create a bespoke contents profile, an avatar so we get more of the same sort of things that we already like. And we are now flanked with another bias fortifying system that narrows down the blinkers we own even more. The social medias are not windows overlooking the world, they are a pair of binoculars that zoom into the things we are familiar with and that we are looking for.

Everyday on Facebook people throw pieces of evidence at each other’s faces not realising that ALL INFORMATIONS AND EXACT SAME PICTURES can be read and seen under different lights depending on the provenance. The internet is a magical place where literally anything and everything can be found at the type of a finger and at any time. So as people either follow pro or con Brexit groups on the social medias, they forget that the informations they get from those sites depict a tainted and prejudiced truth. Those proof confirm their bias and becomes their reality. Because the same information is perceived from both extreme end of the spectrum when they argue about an event they are actually talking about 2 very different events. They don’t talk about the same thing, they don’t speak the same language, they don’t abide by the same logic, they see things only from their vantage point and we wonder why Brexiters and Remainers disagree...

Furthermore, in real 3D life we also tend to hang around with people that share similar values and convictions and we trust the judgement of whom we look up to as we are inherently programmed to belong to a society. So any potential of doubt, or traces of conflicting feelings we may have in regards to the veracity of the informations offered by the opposition, will be crushed instantly by the innate subconscious desire not to betray our own.

So what are the beliefs that feed Brexit ?

People who have been following my blogs understand by now the belief system. But for those who just found me it is important I remind how our beliefs are emotional, out of reach of our conscious mind and run our actions and reactions daily. We borrow them from people around us as we grow up. We don't choose them but we do have a tendency to reinforce them. They can change and evolve, and they can stick forever too.

There is a situation> People want Brexit. The justification to it, the reasons we use to justify that situation from the conscious mind are: Sovereignty, immigration and the English National Identity. This is what our head, our intelligent, rational and analytical mind articulates. The real underlying emotional reason behind that situation, the belief that raises and feeds that situation is: "Because we are scared. We are scared of others. We must create a division. We don't trust others. We are better than others..." in the past it is such beliefs that have fuelled the British Empire to conquer and colonise most of the globe at the cost of unmentionable atrocities and millions and millions of innocent lives.

We inherit such belief from the time we were cavemen:" We can't trust others. We must be predators instead of preys. We must survive. There are not enough food/goods for everyone so we must protect our goods and keep the others at bay...". Back then this was totally justified. Times were harsh and fear and aggression are the best survival tools we came up with. Times have changed however, a long while ago. Yet many places in the world are still stuck in the past, held into a restrictive survival mode.

Brexit means Brexit

From an evolutionary perspective our brain is designed first and foremost for survival. So in the face of danger we are much more likely to take action as opposed to when there are no danger. Translated into the context of that article: Fear and anger are much more powerful energies to drive actions than a state of safety and happiness. Brexit is the action of division fulled by the energy of fear and anger.

And that explains why so many have voted Brexit. Not because there are more people in the UK that want out. But because people who voted for Brexit were motivated by the powerful instinct of fear. Whereas the Remainers did not take action nowhere near as much since they are not controlled by that visceral state or urgency. Politicians alway knew how to manipulate and motivate people to vote with lies and fear...

There are no bad people, only dangerous choices

We are all the product of our beliefs created by our upbringing and surrounding. Whatever we believe therefore is the only truth we know. No one intends to hurt others by choice or malice. We do so by culture. No one chooses where we are born, how we are raised and what belief our subconscious mind will use as auto pilot for most of our life. We are all the result of the big lottery of the Universe.

So people who ended up voting for Donald Trump in the USA, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, and people who voted for Brexit, all those people genuinely believe that they are doing the right thing and that their truth is the only truth to support and follow. In the depth of their heart they genuinely and sincerely believe that it is the opposition who can’t see the truth they see.

They may be dangerous people. Dangerous for minorities and the state of the planet. Absolutely. But there are no inherently bad people. As a therapist and a human being and since I perfectly understand the mechanics of the mind I have stopped judging people a long time ago. It is not about individuals being either good or bad, it is about governments manipulation, the need to belong at any cost and the inherent fear of others. It is about people going along with whatever flow they are born into and not realising that they have a choice to change the direction and quality of that flow.

When we label people bad we are condemning them to be our enemies. We want to create an opportunity to communicate and collaborate in order to change the state of things. Understanding that we are all the same, that there is not one universal truth and that we all want to be right because we all believe that our truth is truer than other people’s truth is a powerful paradigm shift for compassion, communication and change.

The secret recipe for Brexit

This is my best attempt at staying impartial and kind and my concise psychoanalysis of a typical Brexiter’s mindset evolution: Anger and frustration bred by the constant hatred and blame culture broadcasted by a fearful environment ignite a fight/flight/freeze sympathetic state in the body that triggers a defensive, reactive and paranoid mode in the mind. As we go into a survival mode the IQ drops dramatically because a survival mode only allows a basic and binary level of thinking, so not only are we angry but also stupid (in the literal and not judgemental sense), then the RAS in their brain amplifies those emotions and thoughts, and the latent delusion of megalomaniac grandeur from a bygone era is the final cherry on the cake that complements the perfect recipe for Brexit.

Not everyone is the same but action speaks louder than words, and since voting for Brexit is a serious action implicating serious aftermaths we ought to ask ourselves why we are doing this at the first place. What are the deep underlying beliefs that motivate us to celebrate division in 2019 ? It is possible to see the fundamental flaws of the logic of Brexit only if we stop focusing on facts and figures and when we start to figure out instead how we ended up believing these beliefs at the first place.

The power of unity

The Egyptians, the Chineses, the Mayans, the Greeks and the Romans thought they had it all, yet all empires collapsed eventually... Why ? Because of the illusion of division. We impact the world with actions and the good news is that we all own the ability to update our choices of actions and reveal our natural potential for love, trust, unity and humanity...

Humans have been around for a very short time in relation to the age of the planet. I truly believe that we are at the dawn of a massive step forward as far as the human specie's evolution is concerned. The only last one remnants and hindrance from the past that we need to absolutely eradicate is the illusion of division. I strongly believe that one day soon there will be no longer any political frontiers to divide our global potential, only cultural ones to enhance our magnificent differences. I believe that we all have the choice to either contribute to the expansion of us as a whole, or miss out on it and die owning a bitter, old, scared and angry heart for having tried too long to deny and slow down the inevitable and beautiful unity and expansion of the human race...