Friday, January 27, 2006

Partisan = drug addict?

Yes, I'm posting a lot of political stuff lately. And I appreciate that some of you might not be entertained by all of this considering we've just spent the better part of two months dealing with a federal election.

I just ask you to bear with me a bit. I gotta go where my muse takes me. And this week, I must still have some political issues to work out. I still have stuff written about Ray Guy and Andy Wells I haven't posted yet.

But my friend Mike sent me this link to a fascinating article about what effects being strongly political partisan can have on the brain. Mike, by the way, has got a Phd in biochemistry or something, studied at Harvard and is a senior research chemist. So if the science of this article makes sense to him, then there is probably something to it. It's an American study so Republicans and Democrats were used, but I think we can pretty safely substitute in Canadian political parties.

For those of you who don't want to read the article, I'll quote from what Mike sent to me about what the article's conclusions are:

"There is now scientific evidence that strong political partisans
a) Don't think logically
b) Can't learn from new data, and
c) Have brains that function similarly to those of drug addicts."

Clearly I'm not thinking of anybody in particular. I'm just throwing this out there for general public education.

However, the next time you flip on Newsworld and there are three pundits arguing that the Liberals, Conservatives or NDP is the best party, realize there is apparently not much of a difference between them and crazy, brain-damaged drug addicts.

Playing on iTunes
Open Heart Symphony - Spirit of the West

No comments: