Wednesday, December 19, 2018

"People are radicalized because they prefer to feel than reason"

Anna Rosling, co-founded the Gapminder team to disseminate and interpret data and statistics.

I am 43 years old: the world is less poor, violent, unequal and unjust than when I was born. Beware of the dramatic and interesting stories of journalists, activists and politicians: they tend to be interested. We publish 'Factfulness' to help analyze reality with reason and data; not with instincts and prejudices.

Facts: no emotions 

We are radicalized by the bias of the straight line: we take for granted the future well-being (it is not) and we give ourselves to political passion as a spectacle without consequences.

Meanwhile, our instinct denies progress.

But poverty has dropped by half; women receive almost the same years of education as men; the majority of humanity lives in middle-income countries; the planet will not be extinguished by overpopulation, since its upward curve will soon be descending; 80% of the world's children are vaccinated and tigers, pandas and black rhinos are no longer threatened. The Rosling, from Sweden, belie the deception of the instincts with data and the force of reason.

Why do we radicalize?

Because politics is lived as a spectacle of identities and passions and should be the analysis of facts and data from reason.

Why do not we use it more?

Because it requires more effort than abandoning ourselves to our primary emotions. The Rosling we have analyzed the ten instincts that remain for humans less expensive in energy than to reason.

We have them since we were reptiles. And as humans, most of our past consisted of living in small groups attentive to the dangers to have an immediate reaction, always dependent on the group.
If the tribe rejected us, we perished. 

Why does instinct still send us? 

 Because it's like sugar: we no longer need it, but we like it. And you, the journalists, are the first to use those primary instincts to capture the maximum attention.

https://www.lavanguardia.com/lacontra/20181219/453642054487/la-gente-se-radicaliza-porque-prefiere-sentir-a-razonar.html
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