Blog 2480 – 08.09.2022
The Bicameral Mind
I am told that the minds of both men and women have two sides, the right and the left, the rational and the intuitive, the reasonable and the emotional. Men tend to favor the right side and women the left. But the great divide is only in our minds when we decide to only use half of our mental capacity.
Thinking we are always right without considering the alternative is a sure fire way to find ourselves wrong-headed. We had a chance six years ago to elect a woman President in the United States but did not, that after eight years of the first black President, it seemed a bridge too far for a few U.S. voters in three swing states. Hilary Clinton won the popular vote by a couple of million votes but lost the Electoral College vote by a couple hundred thousand votes. Too many people, using only the right side of their brains, found it unreasonable and irrational to elect an educated, experienced, politically savvy, and capable women to hold that office and instead elected a pitch man, a sales man, a con man to hold that high office.
Quite a number of those people still refuse to change their minds about the wisdom of that choice in face of overwhelming evidence that it was a bad decision. The United States government and the governments of the individual states have a bicameral legislature, a Senate and A House of Representatives to write and pass laws for their Executive Branch to sign and enforce and their Judicial Branch to rule on according to their interpretation of the applicable constitution, federal or state.
This is the constitutional republic our founding fathers left us hoping that we would endeavor from that starting point to create a more perfect union for the greater good. The United Kingdom’s great war-time Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, once said, “Democracy is a very bad form of government, but I ask you to remember that all the others are so much worse.”
The government should reflect the governed. This country for far too long has been governed almost exclusively by old white guys who typically favor using only half their brains, men determined to maintain the status quo and to resist progress and change at every turn.
We need more women and minorities in government not less and it is high time that all three branches of our government were run by people who use both sides of their brains, women and men.
I always close my daily mantra with:
“I make all these intentions for the good of the Universe, myself, and all people everywhere. So be it and it is so. Ah man and Ah woman, Aye men and Aye women.
Your friend and fellow traveler.
David White
“Half a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
No Matter What
theencouragingword 