Cleopatra, a cowboy, then screaming!. - How we understand things.

“We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.”   

             “Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the Dark. ”

― William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra





  Cleopatra, a cowboy, then....screaming!
      Presented with this information, how does the brain deal with it? Necessarily, the brain must deal with it as it does with all information:

                                Information -------------> Idea

       Consequently, you might sort it out like this:

                       Cleopatra   --------------> Queen Of Egypt
                       A cowboy   --------------> Tom Mix

                      Screaming! --------------> Expressing a strong emotional state

        And then, in an example of the fundamentally creative aspect of basic communication, our brains start to fill in the blanks, to describe and explain the connections between things:
                       Cleopatra is showing her asp to Tom Mix.
       Or:           Mark Antony has run through Tom Mix with his sword!
       Or:           Cleopatra and Tom Mix are enjoying some how's your father.

       And that is basically how we understand things. We understand things by understanding connections between things. Our brains make connections automatically, so if we make efforts to ask and check, we naturally stand a greater chance of understanding things better.

                And so:

                       Cleopatra --------------> Queen of Egypt?
                       A Cowboy --------------> Tom Mix?
                       Screaming! -------------> What kind of screaming?

                 And to answer:
                    
                     Cleopatra ---------------> A movie title
                     A Cowboy  ---------------> A movie title                                                                          Screaming! ----------> A movie title

                  If you are British, forties or older, and the kind of person who can recite F.A. cup winners, or who knows where you can find Tom Mix standing next to Oscar Wilde, then you probably stand a better chance of recognising that the connection between these movie titles is that much-loved British institution: The Carry On films.


 

Something's afoot, in Carry on Screaming!

           
                Very simply, if we can not connect idea(s) to information, it means that we don't understand the information ( but your brain will plug it in somewhere anyway...)
             For example, presented with the information of a dog it is easy enough for most people to go to the idea of an animal. The information of a small dog will probably lead to the idea of a chihuahua etc.
             It is when we encounter information such as a gold dog that our connected ideas can become shaky and unsure. Is it a golden retriever ? Is it a statue ? What kind of dog is it?
             However, as can be clearly seen from our example, when we are unsure of the idea, we start to ask and check. In fact, it is fair to say that the only way we can better understand anything that is a little difficult for us is by asking and checking.
              When we ask and check, we are looking for information that helps us to fill in the gap(s) between Information and Idea. Our bicameral brains are so good at filling these gaps automatically, that, in a very real and practical way, we may think we understand something when we have completely the wrong idea. If our sense of correctness is bolstered by other information such as: the approval of others, prevailing cultural ideas, and being the products of cultures where communication must be, to some degree, inhibited to protect the current system, then we may start to think that, say, A President Bottom Burp, or A Prime Minister Knob are great ideas.
                   Here is an example of what ordinarily happens:

                 Information ---------------------------------> Idea


                Boris Johnson ------------------------------> Acceptable leader


   So, how does this step happen?
               Any and all information is always dependent on context. The context of any and all information is, generally, all other information within the universe, but it is specifically our own context, the way we as an individual connect to the universe, that has the strongest effect on our own ideas. So our ideas are brought up from the well of our own experience, washed in the water of our previous ideas. (Or possibly, caked in the sludge that collects at the bottom of wells that are dry.)
              How, erm, well...our own personal well of thought is connected to ground water, open to rain, or even if it is has been made accessible for strangers to tip buckets of liquid of  unknown provenance into, is due to both our own efforts, and that matrix of ideas that we are all inside and is known as culture.
          

When Sheriff Earp hears the word culture...

           We all grow up surrounded and saturated by ideas. The strongest are embedded within ourselves, those instincts that we are born with. After that, we are provided with ready-cooked ideas from family, friends, country and local and international culture. The human brain being so good at processing the information of these ideas, that we can happily be a fully functioning repository of other peoples' ideas without pausing to consider if that is what we might actually want. Without doubt, there are many systems of culture, and especially education, that serve to inhibit those natural abilities that allow us to understand things beyond dog-level.  Why else would there be a bizarre glorification of children being able to spell words they will almost never use, hear, or read, while so little effort is expended on encouraging them to practice asking and checking?
          
           It would make sense, especially at this point in human history when there is access to information like never before, to acknowledge that we should no longer try to inhibit our most natural abilities but rather encourage them. Especially as our context is now changing dazzlingly, dizzily fast, yet our governments and institutions are insistent and largely dependent on preparing people for contexts which have disappeared, or bear no resemblance to what went before.
          A determination to step into the past has marked recent political developments. And to secure that about-turn, the old ideas of Empire and Exceptionalism, those ideas from the 19th and 20th centuries, are printed, bound and distributed to the frightened.
           However, we are in most need of new ideas, just as we always were, rather than the old ideas we seem to be increasingly clutching at like a baby chimp with a comfort blanket.

Us; increasingly so recently.

           And just for good measure, the story of the neglected little soul in the photograph re-emphasises the more obvious general point: that it is only by connections that we can develop and flourish....everybody instinctively knows this, and people will generally only give up human companionship for sitting up a mountain with the promise of becoming best mates with God...so why are we doing this to ourselves? Why are we choosing to neglect ourselves and each other and deliberately sitting in our respective cardboard boxes, clutching our cloth gods, keeping ourselves warm with fantasies of Albion, Abraham and Asgard, afraid of the future knocking at the door, refusing to engage with it, and so causing this inevitable visitor to creep in when we are least prepared, as we, now terrified, think it no longer a necessary traveling companion but an enemy to be held down, choked, and murdered with excuses?
            

          Why? Because the culture demands it. A bloated rotting ghoul, stumbling with running sores, it shambles from one old haunt to the next, desperate to avoid the natural light if it is to continue to survive in its darkness; twitching and fearful of the dawn, it cowers in the sewers with its children.
           Carry on screaming.