Right, left, Conspiracy

I am writing this, influenced by a programme a I partially watched yesterday with my son; it was about the ‘flat earth movement.’

Now, please, before I go on, promise me that none of you will ever watch this.

I made it a third of the way through before switching-off.

This whole thing is nonsense, but importantly reflects something profound within humanity; that of the split brain.

You can see it played-out daily on the News.

And this is what I hope to discuss.

It will require a little understanding of the brain, but not too much and likely, most people will be with me on the rudiments already.

Here, I will begin.

We have two brains; left and right.

Officially, or at least, according to the scientists, for the majority of people the left brain (which governs the right side of your body) relates to fact, data, detail, numbers, estimation, calculation; logical thought.

The right is more flowery, shape, form, imagery, ideas, creativity, emotion and so on.

The two sides connect via something called the Corpus Callosum which I think helps work everything out, so you can get an iPhone which is the product of left and right – the tech left and the design right.

OK, that should be it for neurology;

Now, isn’t it funny that we have a situation like, (and sorry, about this, but it will time-stamp this blog for posterity) Brexit, where the country is split 50/50.

Isn’t that a little like the brain – the essence of how we think and function in the world?

I am not trying to go flat-earth on you, more, offering an explanation, of which there are many.

Anyway; isn’t it apparent – left brain is Brexit; take a figure like Boris who sits to the extreme; thinking not about equality, empathy, care and support, but about financial tariffs, quotas for immigration, collaboration and culture (aka own nest-feathering); and on the other side, well, me, who sees the value of togetherness, who sees what we have in common, what binds us together, in some ways, choosing to ignore the difficulties – finite resources, the preference that my family have more than they need and damn those others who struggle to feed their families or achieve sanitation.

None of it is this straightforward and part of this blog was inspired by a recent Podcast by Dan Carlin and Daniele Bolelli – you can find it here.

The world is more complex than left and right, it is more than binary; despite binary being at the centre of virtually everything in the universe; again – iPhone. It either is or it isn’t.

(Or to be more abstruse – my left leaning creates a refraction that influences how I perceive the world, in particular the left and right).

They talked about right and left; probably should be capitalised – Nazis belonging to a socialist party; eh; is that not right and left, or PDRK (North Korea) – they seem quite totalitarian and right; yet, they call themselves the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Korea; isn’t Democracy to the Right?

Yes, these are just names, and names, well, you can call anything, anything; the best advertising agencies worked this out years ago.

And, back to the right and left; (sorry, N, for my inconsistency with capitalisation, you’ll just have to live with it or hack into my account and change everything).

Here are some more examples with their associated simplifications inherent:

Climate Change – Left: let’s walk to work, Right: It’s not happening

Trump – Left: this is insane, Right: Keep the Mexicans out, try to make America great again

Education – Left: equality – level playing field, Right: it is a race to the finish

Health – Left: equality, fairness and we are all humans, Right: life is a struggle for survival, the first to the finish line wins.

Conspiracy – Left: it is nature, things happen, Right: it is a Bolshevik/Jewish/Chinese/5G conspiracy, that is, everything.

None of this falls neatly into two camps, but hopefully you can see where I am heading and without the blog becoming a 1000 page tome, it is at least an indication of direction.

Cripes – I haven’t included the hospital; left is holistic, person-centred medicine, right, well, you can make it up, let’s pick-on the robots conducting surgery as no one should be offended except the engineers.

I guess the solution to this is to get your brain working; oh dear – holistically. Together, as one.

I imagine, those in the newly formed Independent Group of UK MPs have healthy Left and Right brains, who see each side of the problem and well, have become, independent. Thanks Chuka and Luciana.

Those who have read this blog will likely know where I lean;

I was talking with my son yesterday about some of these subjects and was a little surprised that he was more Right leaning, than me, particularly when I was his age (when I was an all-out Marxist).

I guess, it is hard to exist in the world with answers to everything – either Google or specialists like Quora coming to your aid; Search this for example; Am I left or right? Politically, emotionally, culturally, economically…

I know that most people who have remained with me over the years likely lean more to the left; that is (the right in terms of neurology) – the creative, adaptive, brain;

None of this is all or nothing;

I prefer to rely on intuition rather than long-term planning.

Who knows, perhaps this has ruffled feathers, alternatively, like me, you have switched-off before getting half way though.

Sorry that there hasn’t been much humour in this, at least I haven’t mentioned death.