Not sure if capitalism is limbic. Maybe in part, since we can get a daily dopamine hit through that sweet, sweet Amazon truck pulling in front of the abode. The rest, not so much. But national politics? Oh, absolutely we have limbic politics. Our current president and Congress do almost nothing of substance or about policy, they focus exclusively on getting attention. Their performance to ensure it--such as ICE agents going full SS instead of the quiet federal agents they used to be--certainly hit the limbic system to those addicted to rageahol. Every Trump press conference. Every Hegseth pronouncement dripping with fake testosterone.
Of course, JD is the guy in the room who knows everything but really knows very little about what he is pontificating. The US dollar as the reserve currency of the world has been a key foundation for the growth of our economy over the last 40+ years. That said, the low interest rates coupled with the desire of the world to own US government debt, has enable Congress to spend like drunken sailors.
The US just crossed $40 trillion in debt. The debt will soon exceed the US annul GDP which hasn't been done since WWII. It is easy for Congress to enable a war in Iran (or anywhere) when no one really pays for it in real time, everything is put on the credit card.
It is a good thing to have cheap debt, which will soon be at an end when the US $ is no longer the reserve currency of the world. It just seems to me we need to assess tax any tome we go to war or incur costs that are not "capital" in nature. Perhaps if we did tax rather than borrow, we may not be going to war so much.
I encourage you to read health and wellness writer Michael Easter on the topic of dopamine. He is here on Substack. Dopamine is a crucial neurotransmitter and is not the evil that popular opinion makes it out to be.
Talking economics is extremely interesting since we are all stuck in it. I saw Krugman on Ari Melbier's program the other night and one sequence of his thoughts revealed what I had been thinking for years. "... the deficit is so big because of tax cuts..." He was saying if we hadn't had the tax cuts of W, Trump 1.0 and 2.0 we might be fine. Interesting because when it is said that taxing the rich is not going to help that much I agree. It is a 50 year whole of tax cuts and a bogus trickle down theory that limbic capitalism kept us in the fog.
Limbic capitalism. It's real, from me wanting to check my phone each morning for further evidence of Trump's asinine behavior, to single-handedly supporting Jeff Bezos thru Amazon. I'm going on a year-long buying fast (clothes, books I will "read later", music CDs with songs of my youth, etc.) Unfortunately, I can't get away from politics with everything going on, but I'm focusing more attention on other things because I have to to maintain normalcy.
J.D. Vance gets it from both sides: he's both smarter than his classmates in college thought he was, because of his meager social capital, and considerably stupider than Peter Thiel (or Amy Chua). Or his imposter syndrome is so profound, it makes him stupid, because he lurches from one parental figure to another for relief.
I'm in England now for the memorial service for my father-in-law--so cricket, not baseball, was the sport he passed on to his son, my husband. Although he gave up cricket decades ago, he continued to walk in the English countryside until at least his 90th birthday, when he walked up a relatively small hill to a beautiful tarn (glacial lake). I think that right up until the end of his walking days, he carried a tennis ball in his fell-walking rucksack so that if the opportunity arose, he could always "have a catch" with a youngster. The last time I remember, he fell in a parking lot after a rainy walk while playing catch with my son, who was probably about 10. But he wasn't the kind to slow down, and that would have been 20 years ago. I'm guessing there were more games of catch with younger grandchildren even after that. I hope it's a memory they all can cherish.
Limbic Capitalism. Otherwise known as marketing! It was demonstrated by Don Draper in the show Mad Men, when American advertisers began to pay more attention to how a product made people feel. Words, memories and concepts designed to ping those pleasure and memory pathways. The 2019 book simply pointed out how we've built our economic infrastructure around soaking the consumer in dopamine. Politics is actually very late to the party.
RE: J.D. Vance. If this dweeb ever figures out how to make people like him, he would be extremely dangerous to our future. Luckily, I'm not worried.
I’ve emailed Sen. Britt. I quoted your first five paragraphs (excepting the first sentence about Tim). Then I added:
I’m quoting Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark; I couldn’t have stated it better. The persecution and internment of Japanese Americans in WWII was shameful. What the HELL have we become that this, and worse, is happening again —to anyone—in the U.S.?? Please: get this family released, and use your power to stop such cruel, profane policies. No one deserves to be treated like this. No one.
Social media and other screen activities reach into our pockets and feed the oligarchy. Anne Wilson Schaef wrote about this long ago in When Society Becomes An Addict.
JVL, what are the odds we can find a way out of this?
I think the notion of limbic capitalism is very interesting because it cuts both ways.
In the way that Fox News, Twitter, Truth Social feeds into that model for conservatives, places like the Bulwark, MSNow, David Pakman do for centrists/liberals. And it’s the algorithm that keeps giving us that little fix. Trump doing something stupid, the next “this time he’s finished” feeds into that limbic system.
Which is why Tim’s comments on moderation and sometimes taking some time away is good. Otherwise you might just slip into the abyss.
Personally, I like (properly washed and prepped) spinach. The e-mail to Britt’s office has been sent. The best possible use of some of my lunchtime. Thanks for the reminder.
100% agree. It’s why Trump was honest for one rare time when he said he likes dumb people and poorly educated love him.
But here is my question to you JVL. Say we are a bit of a limbic system. How do you get a large chunk of the population that is not the brightest or most empathetic…..to change? To get them to accept reality, reject the insanity?
My biggest fear through the 10 years or more of Trump is how many Americans have given up true exceptionalism for his bastardized version of “American Exceptionalism”? How many Americans have been swayed, nudged or just walked over to his side? Where you never have to ACTUALLY be correct, you just need to be rich and powerful and willing to abuse the innocent. And how many can come back? Cuz I just don’t know how to fight back against all the ignorance and apathy.
I love the currency discussions. The Natalie stuff is important because it kicks the hornet’s nest, but I find this more interesting. I've also been concerned about the loss of reserve currency status and I think it would be disastrous should that occur.
Not sure if capitalism is limbic. Maybe in part, since we can get a daily dopamine hit through that sweet, sweet Amazon truck pulling in front of the abode. The rest, not so much. But national politics? Oh, absolutely we have limbic politics. Our current president and Congress do almost nothing of substance or about policy, they focus exclusively on getting attention. Their performance to ensure it--such as ICE agents going full SS instead of the quiet federal agents they used to be--certainly hit the limbic system to those addicted to rageahol. Every Trump press conference. Every Hegseth pronouncement dripping with fake testosterone.
Of course, JD is the guy in the room who knows everything but really knows very little about what he is pontificating. The US dollar as the reserve currency of the world has been a key foundation for the growth of our economy over the last 40+ years. That said, the low interest rates coupled with the desire of the world to own US government debt, has enable Congress to spend like drunken sailors.
The US just crossed $40 trillion in debt. The debt will soon exceed the US annul GDP which hasn't been done since WWII. It is easy for Congress to enable a war in Iran (or anywhere) when no one really pays for it in real time, everything is put on the credit card.
It is a good thing to have cheap debt, which will soon be at an end when the US $ is no longer the reserve currency of the world. It just seems to me we need to assess tax any tome we go to war or incur costs that are not "capital" in nature. Perhaps if we did tax rather than borrow, we may not be going to war so much.
This one hits JVL.
I enjoyed eating the spinach today!
I encourage you to read health and wellness writer Michael Easter on the topic of dopamine. He is here on Substack. Dopamine is a crucial neurotransmitter and is not the evil that popular opinion makes it out to be.
Talking economics is extremely interesting since we are all stuck in it. I saw Krugman on Ari Melbier's program the other night and one sequence of his thoughts revealed what I had been thinking for years. "... the deficit is so big because of tax cuts..." He was saying if we hadn't had the tax cuts of W, Trump 1.0 and 2.0 we might be fine. Interesting because when it is said that taxing the rich is not going to help that much I agree. It is a 50 year whole of tax cuts and a bogus trickle down theory that limbic capitalism kept us in the fog.
Limbic capitalism. It's real, from me wanting to check my phone each morning for further evidence of Trump's asinine behavior, to single-handedly supporting Jeff Bezos thru Amazon. I'm going on a year-long buying fast (clothes, books I will "read later", music CDs with songs of my youth, etc.) Unfortunately, I can't get away from politics with everything going on, but I'm focusing more attention on other things because I have to to maintain normalcy.
J.D. Vance gets it from both sides: he's both smarter than his classmates in college thought he was, because of his meager social capital, and considerably stupider than Peter Thiel (or Amy Chua). Or his imposter syndrome is so profound, it makes him stupid, because he lurches from one parental figure to another for relief.
I'm in England now for the memorial service for my father-in-law--so cricket, not baseball, was the sport he passed on to his son, my husband. Although he gave up cricket decades ago, he continued to walk in the English countryside until at least his 90th birthday, when he walked up a relatively small hill to a beautiful tarn (glacial lake). I think that right up until the end of his walking days, he carried a tennis ball in his fell-walking rucksack so that if the opportunity arose, he could always "have a catch" with a youngster. The last time I remember, he fell in a parking lot after a rainy walk while playing catch with my son, who was probably about 10. But he wasn't the kind to slow down, and that would have been 20 years ago. I'm guessing there were more games of catch with younger grandchildren even after that. I hope it's a memory they all can cherish.
Limbic Capitalism. Otherwise known as marketing! It was demonstrated by Don Draper in the show Mad Men, when American advertisers began to pay more attention to how a product made people feel. Words, memories and concepts designed to ping those pleasure and memory pathways. The 2019 book simply pointed out how we've built our economic infrastructure around soaking the consumer in dopamine. Politics is actually very late to the party.
RE: J.D. Vance. If this dweeb ever figures out how to make people like him, he would be extremely dangerous to our future. Luckily, I'm not worried.
I’ve emailed Sen. Britt. I quoted your first five paragraphs (excepting the first sentence about Tim). Then I added:
I’m quoting Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark; I couldn’t have stated it better. The persecution and internment of Japanese Americans in WWII was shameful. What the HELL have we become that this, and worse, is happening again —to anyone—in the U.S.?? Please: get this family released, and use your power to stop such cruel, profane policies. No one deserves to be treated like this. No one.
Limbic Capitalism.
Nailed it.
Social media and other screen activities reach into our pockets and feed the oligarchy. Anne Wilson Schaef wrote about this long ago in When Society Becomes An Addict.
JVL, what are the odds we can find a way out of this?
I think the notion of limbic capitalism is very interesting because it cuts both ways.
In the way that Fox News, Twitter, Truth Social feeds into that model for conservatives, places like the Bulwark, MSNow, David Pakman do for centrists/liberals. And it’s the algorithm that keeps giving us that little fix. Trump doing something stupid, the next “this time he’s finished” feeds into that limbic system.
Which is why Tim’s comments on moderation and sometimes taking some time away is good. Otherwise you might just slip into the abyss.
Personally, I like (properly washed and prepped) spinach. The e-mail to Britt’s office has been sent. The best possible use of some of my lunchtime. Thanks for the reminder.
100% agree. It’s why Trump was honest for one rare time when he said he likes dumb people and poorly educated love him.
But here is my question to you JVL. Say we are a bit of a limbic system. How do you get a large chunk of the population that is not the brightest or most empathetic…..to change? To get them to accept reality, reject the insanity?
My biggest fear through the 10 years or more of Trump is how many Americans have given up true exceptionalism for his bastardized version of “American Exceptionalism”? How many Americans have been swayed, nudged or just walked over to his side? Where you never have to ACTUALLY be correct, you just need to be rich and powerful and willing to abuse the innocent. And how many can come back? Cuz I just don’t know how to fight back against all the ignorance and apathy.
I love the currency discussions. The Natalie stuff is important because it kicks the hornet’s nest, but I find this more interesting. I've also been concerned about the loss of reserve currency status and I think it would be disastrous should that occur.