[Speed Gibson,
Monday August 30, 2004 at 11:25pm]
The Brain Rebels
Air America, the new liberal talk radio network, the left’s answer to Rush Limbaugh, is a flop. A really big flop considering all the up front money and research spent trying to understand and avoid past failures like Mario Cuomo. Judging by election results which show a roughly divided populace, there should be no trouble coming up with, say, ten million regular listeners. Rush Limbaugh has over twice that many.
Yet even one million listeners seems all but out of reach. I think the reason is that regardless of our conscious persuasions on the issues, the brain itself, the sub-conscious if you will, rebels. You’re at your child’s junior high band concert. You’d like to think what they’re playing is passable, not bad for the eighth grade you tell yourself. But however proud you may be of your child’s contribution, your sub-conscious mind headed for the exits long ago.
And so it is here. The sub-conscious of the vast majority of adults will not abide what it perceives to be misleading or unimportant. Thus, I submit that however much a liberal might want to listen to Al Franken for at least an hour a day, down below the brain is yawning, annoyed that you aren’t contemplating something more serious.
You dream of “single payer” health care for everyone, listening intently to an advocate on Air America or National Public Radio. You like everything you hear, even grin or laugh at anyone claiming it won’t work. You nod approvingly when you think of the United States finally joining the rest of the “civilized” world. But again, down below, your sub-conscious being relatively devoid of nuance, sees it for what it is: trading an HMO bureaucrat for an HHS bureaucrat, a net loss.
Said another way, you have to work much harder to be a liberal, having to override your common sense and life experience that your sub-conscious mind embodies. You prefer things that make sense, but since you can’t be seen reading National Review, you do nothing.
That’s why when there is a free market, conservatives rule. Talk radio, cable news, non-fiction books, and the Internet are all now dominated by conservatives. Ann Coulter’s book Slander details many such examples. It’s only where the liberals can monopolize their power, such as with newspapers and Hollywood producers, that they have any advantage.
Liberals keep saying that their message just isn’t getting out. Actually, it is, but it isn’t getting past its toughest critic – the rational mind.
Yet even one million listeners seems all but out of reach. I think the reason is that regardless of our conscious persuasions on the issues, the brain itself, the sub-conscious if you will, rebels. You’re at your child’s junior high band concert. You’d like to think what they’re playing is passable, not bad for the eighth grade you tell yourself. But however proud you may be of your child’s contribution, your sub-conscious mind headed for the exits long ago.
And so it is here. The sub-conscious of the vast majority of adults will not abide what it perceives to be misleading or unimportant. Thus, I submit that however much a liberal might want to listen to Al Franken for at least an hour a day, down below the brain is yawning, annoyed that you aren’t contemplating something more serious.
You dream of “single payer” health care for everyone, listening intently to an advocate on Air America or National Public Radio. You like everything you hear, even grin or laugh at anyone claiming it won’t work. You nod approvingly when you think of the United States finally joining the rest of the “civilized” world. But again, down below, your sub-conscious being relatively devoid of nuance, sees it for what it is: trading an HMO bureaucrat for an HHS bureaucrat, a net loss.
Said another way, you have to work much harder to be a liberal, having to override your common sense and life experience that your sub-conscious mind embodies. You prefer things that make sense, but since you can’t be seen reading National Review, you do nothing.
That’s why when there is a free market, conservatives rule. Talk radio, cable news, non-fiction books, and the Internet are all now dominated by conservatives. Ann Coulter’s book Slander details many such examples. It’s only where the liberals can monopolize their power, such as with newspapers and Hollywood producers, that they have any advantage.
Liberals keep saying that their message just isn’t getting out. Actually, it is, but it isn’t getting past its toughest critic – the rational mind.