Brien Pittman

PATHOCRACY, cool word and it makes a great intro for part two of my exploration of human nature. I’m happy to say that despite my resistance I’ve ended up thankfully, looking at the subject thru a new frame of mind.

In nearly every discussion of social alternatives to market capitalism, defenders of the marketplace appeal to their ‘own’ conception of human nature as the final explanation of the predatory competitiveness of our age of waste and greed.

Perhaps this is why we sum up and judge people within the first 7 seconds of meeting them. We’re not really meeting them; we’re meeting someone from our past or someone that falls out side of our beliefs system. Think about it: what in the world could we possibly know about most people in only 7 seconds?

Unfortunately, most of us only think about the “why” after we do something self-diminishing, not before. But, to change undermining beliefs and habits, we will need to think about them before undermining ourselves. In fact, as we shall see, we need to completely change our thinking in some areas, thus changing our brains.

Many people mistakenly think that our running like the wind reaction to bumping into an angry gorilla is due to our emotions, such as fear. Yet, it was an idea—information received from the outside world and evaluated by the prefrontal cortex and other structures, which sparked the emotional and physical reactions. It was basically an idea or belief, which caused your emotion of scared you out of your wits. In short, when you were in the mall you reacted to what you thought, believed or imagined the environment to be.

Many of our beliefs were formed without our even knowing it.

Today, we have theocratic movements that assume a variety of nuances and labels, including Christian Theocracy, Christian Reconstructionism, Christian Dominionism, Dominion Theology, and Theonomy. All are convinced that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and (now) needs to return to her "Christian heritage." Advocating theocratic principles is a mistaken quest to return America to the original vision of the founding fathers.