Attention Rules!

Referring to my previous post here, puzzling over the likelihood that the choice of how to be quelling aggressive tendencies in other people, such as in Iraq, would be for the decision of dropping of bombs on them, instead of the option to provide them with adequate Omega-3's in their nutrition so their brain cellular walls can function properly and thus more wholesomely for all concerned. Why is that kind of choice typically made, in general?

Sometimes one needs to call a spade a spade, it is said. The causative principle in that kind of decision, perhaps is that the choice ultimately is for that which is more exciting, that one is ready and able to do, and is of doing something highly visible to others. The choice goes to that which gets the most intense attention. Even angry attention, if cheery attention is not an available option.

Why? Being ignored is a potentially disastrous condition to a dependent tiny child vying for shares of the goodies being supplied by harried distracted parents. The pattern is deep within the brain's survival modes even from earliest days, and probably instinctively works to prevent starvation of nutrition or other critical resource to the child. It is said that a small boy will choose to be a naughty boy, even knowing it results in being punished, since being ignored is far worse than mere punishment. Getting punished is a form of attention, in other words; and thus is deemed better than receiving no attention, and thus determines the decision of the little boy.

This instinctive force still lurks deep in the adult decision making process. Thus the strong tendency for even big decisions to go for that which will bring more attention to the doer, choosing that which gives more bang for the buck, so to speak. Attention rules.

Widespread acknowledgment of this human need for receiving personal attention in everyday life (and similarly of a need for experiencing outer drama which somehow resonates within oneself); then discovering the most wholesome ways to fill these needs, may be a way to solve this ancient problem that has probably been involved in so terribly much grief-making even in recent times, even worldwide.

To make this more wholesome consciousness happen, per the same principle, it will have to provide the most dramatic attention among the options. Unfortunately, right now it looks pretty boring, right?

Advertising seems to use some of these principles, but instead to sell a product. Maybe advertising could be applied to this kind of task, too. Anybody want to fork out enough money to do the job? Or is the alternative far more exciting? Attention rules!