We don't forget what we consider urgent. Urgency could be defined as keeping some past event in the forefront of our minds, a constant presentment to that part of our executive function that prioritizes actions. We humans, as all biological organisms are, are not evolved to remain in a constant state of emergency. We cannot sustain it. F…
We don't forget what we consider urgent. Urgency could be defined as keeping some past event in the forefront of our minds, a constant presentment to that part of our executive function that prioritizes actions. We humans, as all biological organisms are, are not evolved to remain in a constant state of emergency. We cannot sustain it. Flight or fight are short term responses to danger. We can flee a forest fire or a predator but not an ever-encroaching fire, or an ever-pursuing predator, at some point we turn and fight the one or surrender to the other. Recruitment of our inner resources perhaps require perception that the danger is immediate rather than slowly developing, is well defined, rather than fuzzily abstract, is amenable to solution rather than so great as to be beyond our capability to remediate. Humans have a certain stoic fatalism that kicks in. The urgency fades, with it the presentment of memory to the executive function. Everything reverts to some default setting. We all get numbed. To school shootings, climate change...etc.
“Humans have a certain stoic fatalism that kicks in” is an excellent addition to Dr. Jetelina’s typically smart and thought-provoking post. I would be curious to learn whether this kind of fatalism has been studied. I certainly see it anecdotally. For example, when a friend and I (we are both up in years) noted a widely shared local concern that could be and needed to be addressed by a local representative, I suggested she might want to write her and let her know (as I had done). She responded that she’s done that many times in the past and never hears back, so she has given up expecting anything from her representatives. I am sure this is a common experience, and easily seen as applicable to gun control, given our utter failure to make any progress on this after so much slaughter.
I think part of the equation is a scaling problem. In this case an example is from college classrooms where in small seminars, students are more attentive and feel more ownership of the info imparted, whereas in larger auditorium size venues (like at UC Berkeley decades ago) the students were more likely to be inattentive. Translate that to city life, where if there is some problem, say homelessness, people don't take ownership of fixing it as readily as if the identical problem was happening in some population 700 small town. Scaling problems pop up again and again where large scale venues induce passivity and even resignation. At least that's my theory.
Michael: I think that theory of yours has a lot of merit. Amusingly, in the anecdote I mention, while the scale was not small town level, in our discussion, it transpired my friend knows her assembly person quite well. She was persuaded on that basis to try writing to her on the issue. But overall, yes, I see what you are describing all around me, and also, in a place as big as NYC, where I am, there are so many things that need addressing, one can be flattened just by that!
We don't forget what we consider urgent. Urgency could be defined as keeping some past event in the forefront of our minds, a constant presentment to that part of our executive function that prioritizes actions. We humans, as all biological organisms are, are not evolved to remain in a constant state of emergency. We cannot sustain it. Flight or fight are short term responses to danger. We can flee a forest fire or a predator but not an ever-encroaching fire, or an ever-pursuing predator, at some point we turn and fight the one or surrender to the other. Recruitment of our inner resources perhaps require perception that the danger is immediate rather than slowly developing, is well defined, rather than fuzzily abstract, is amenable to solution rather than so great as to be beyond our capability to remediate. Humans have a certain stoic fatalism that kicks in. The urgency fades, with it the presentment of memory to the executive function. Everything reverts to some default setting. We all get numbed. To school shootings, climate change...etc.
“Humans have a certain stoic fatalism that kicks in” is an excellent addition to Dr. Jetelina’s typically smart and thought-provoking post. I would be curious to learn whether this kind of fatalism has been studied. I certainly see it anecdotally. For example, when a friend and I (we are both up in years) noted a widely shared local concern that could be and needed to be addressed by a local representative, I suggested she might want to write her and let her know (as I had done). She responded that she’s done that many times in the past and never hears back, so she has given up expecting anything from her representatives. I am sure this is a common experience, and easily seen as applicable to gun control, given our utter failure to make any progress on this after so much slaughter.
Hi Susan!
I think part of the equation is a scaling problem. In this case an example is from college classrooms where in small seminars, students are more attentive and feel more ownership of the info imparted, whereas in larger auditorium size venues (like at UC Berkeley decades ago) the students were more likely to be inattentive. Translate that to city life, where if there is some problem, say homelessness, people don't take ownership of fixing it as readily as if the identical problem was happening in some population 700 small town. Scaling problems pop up again and again where large scale venues induce passivity and even resignation. At least that's my theory.
Michael: I think that theory of yours has a lot of merit. Amusingly, in the anecdote I mention, while the scale was not small town level, in our discussion, it transpired my friend knows her assembly person quite well. She was persuaded on that basis to try writing to her on the issue. But overall, yes, I see what you are describing all around me, and also, in a place as big as NYC, where I am, there are so many things that need addressing, one can be flattened just by that!