Monday, January 11, 2010
Self-Esteem Movement Dehumanizing
It turns out that if you think highly of yourself, that is positively correlated with low frontal cortex activity, and the frontal cortex is, of course, most developed in humans, and is the location of the mental activities that make us distinctly human. The authors observe that, "This region of the frontal lobe is generally associated with reasoning, planning, decision-making and problem-solving." Is it any coincidence that these are the very traits missing in our high school graduates? Isn't it time we got rid of this destructive, dehumanizing program of education?
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3 comments:
I wonder if this could go the other way, though--if too much reflection and rumination (i.e. "self-consciousness") can result in elevated stress levels, high blood pressure, and an inability to ask a pretty girl to the prom. I speculate that the answer is "yes." In Mimesis and the Human Animal, Robert Storey writes that "The gene machine works best when it is most thoroughly self-deluded, serenely bearing its molecular residents through the rubble of the war that is life." Not exactly true, of course, but I love the turn of phrase.
As with anything, moderation is the goal. Neither a narcissist nor a navel-gazer be.
Indeed, are we surprised that narcissists don't use their brains very much?
The other extreme is Alfred J. Prufrock.
Neither are healthy. The golden mean in everything.
One of my favorite movies on self-esteem gone crazy is Demolision Man. Critics panned it, but it has some really smart commentary about the possible future. Sometimes, speculative fiction does the best job of pointing out the absurdity of extremes.
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