I have a beard (not a consequence of lockdown!). If someone pulls my beard it hurts. But if someone merely mocks beards (not even my beard in particular), I still get hurt. This is fascinating. What is getting hurt here? What is getting pulled and pinched? Only a stiff entity can suffer a collision, a pull, a pinch etc. What is that rigid thing in me that the comment, a bit of information, is colliding with?
This is the magic of 'identification'. I identify with something – and then it is as though it IS me. "I am a beardo" is said with such great conviction that a mere chunk of information becomes a stiff entity. Now it can be pushed around just like a physical object, and it can collide with other bits of information. If anyone just as much as mocks beards, those sentences crash into my beard-identity – in my experience this is a threat to my survival, and I go wild. There is no more a conscious person, merely a compulsive animal fighting for its survival.
In neuroscience this is called Amygdala hijack. The same mechanism comes into action in case of our identifications with opinions and ideologies also. This is why almost none of the discussions and debates proceeds sensibly, and it is mostly about interrupting and shouting. Because unconsciously, we consider the defeat of our opinions as death, and therefore the clash of opinions can very easily translate into a physical clash. From a smalltime tiff to a full-fledged war between countries – the mechanism is just this. A friction out of thin air. Identification turns air-like information into a hard nut. The psychological ‘person’ becomes a rigid mass of an entity, and we begin ascribing physical attributes to mentality. We talk of tension, pressure, wound, hurt etc., all of which pertain to physicality, to refer to our psychological condition as well, not merely metaphorically, but literally. As a result, we succumb to an imagined survival struggle of our imagined psychological body.
In fact, human beings seem to have their survival instinct much more powerfully active in relation to their psychological person than with their physical body. Today our physical survival and safety is well taken of, and most of us hardly have any physical threats. So, the arena has been shifted to the mental realm, and all the defensive-offensive energy is being spent psychologically. Have you not noticed that when people want to irritate you, they mock your identities – your favorite film actor, your political leaning, ideologies you subscribe to, or even your God (or the lack of it) etc. Why are they doing it? It is because they see you as a bundle of identities (and you acknowledge it too). And that, in turn, is because they experience themselves too as a bundle of identities. Animals maul each other’s physical body. Humans maul each other’s identity body. The jungle has only become very sophisticated, but the survival instinct at work is the same.
"Oh does it mean I remain silent no matter what is said?" The point being made is about the unconscious inner reaction that the action is springing from, and not the action itself. What action you perform outside is a different matter. And anyway, when are actions more relevant, effective and efficient? When the animal is wildly reacting to defend itself (falsely assuming a survival threat), or when the human being, who sees that this has absolutely nothing to do with my survival, is consciously responding as needed?
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