Peace, War, And Pink Fuzzy Bunnies
The Human condition is funny thing. We can’t escape it, but we humans consistently try to defy our nature – at a cost.
You see, the brain is something we use on a regular basis to do all sorts and tasks that we deem useful and even necessary – like finding food, cooking it, then eating it… all while knowing that it’s food and not poison (hopefully at least).
But an issue arises when you start taking a stand on something and are looking for fellow humans to follow your cause. When you want to get the message out to influence people, you have 2 choice for the most part… group together FOR a cause, or fight together AGAINST a cause.
Now, we humans have something called a ‘fight or flight’ mechanism. This thing is really deep rooted in our brains and chemically identical to a panic attack. In fact, it’s part of our “old brain” that also lets our heart beat and lungs breath without having to consciously think about them. Personally I think it would quite difficult to sleep if I had to tell my heart to keep moving the blood around while in bed.
So how does this relate to your message reaching ability?
Well, before I get to that let me let me ask you not to think about fuzzy pink bunnies. In a few moments you’ll understand why. Adding to this is an idea that Napoleon Hill first suggested back in the 1930’s within the book “Think and Grow Rich”, and that’s that THOUGHTS ARE THINGS.
Ok, with your brain not trying to make bunnies real, lets dive in…
Fear is likely the strongest motivating factor (or state) we have. It’s what keeps us alive in the face of danger. Absent of fear we are almost purely a pleasure seeking creature. A life with no fear however will likely result in a series of poor choices and may lead you directly into a trap – either emotionally, physically, or both.
Fear will always get you a stronger response then pleasure. It’s a stronger emotion because it’s a survival mechanism. Pleasure only happens when you’re alive and usually only after you feel safe. So if you want to make a big crowd quickly, you rally against a common enemy and insight a common and easy to relate to fear. However, by concentrating on what you’re fighting against you are forcing it to always be ‘front on mind’. That fearful thought, according to Mr.Hill, will eventually create itself by the collective thoughts of the crowd.
Mother Teresa understood this intuitively and was recorded as saying “I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.” Because fear is such a strong emotion it’s much easier to build an Anti-War rally, but the focus on war actually prevents the creation of peace. Peace rallies would be much more effective, but it’s hard to get people ‘worked up’ to be peaceful. Often people equate peace with doing nothing. With silly phrases like “If you cant say anything nice, say nothing at all” many people have been conditioned by their upbringing to do nothing when a civilized dialogue is desired.
You see, your human brain doesn’t care either way about weather you say or think about anything as a ‘pro’ or ‘con’. It doesn’t differentiate between good or bad. That’s your rational brain that was developed many evolutions later. If you don’t believe me continue trying to remove all thoughts of bunnies from your mind – especially pink fuzzy ones. All your brain knows is that something exists, and it will help you create whatever you concentrate the most effort on.
In an anti-war rally you are constantly bombarded with this war is bad and don’t kill that. Your brain hears war and kill way too often and will start to consider ways to wage war and kill things. How are you doing removing the pink bunnies from your thoughts? A pro-peace rally will fill your mind with suggestions of peaceful and harmonious activities and ideas. As you keep focusing on peace your thoughts will drift over to suggest peaceful resolutions to try. Your brain wants to please you and will try to manifest anything you think about often enough.
So what about that cause you’re trying to influence?
If you are having issues in your life, or your business trying to get yourself or others to think a certain way, or take certain actions, you need to understand how your language, and the presentation method used, affects ones thoughts and ultimately their actions.
You can gain a large crowd ready to fight against something much easier then create a crowd of people ready to build something new. But it’s really hard to get a bunch of fighters calm enough to do the work of building something. No matter how awesome the result could be, you need to remove the destroy mindset before you can install the build mindset.
So it’s a rather simple – If you want a large gathering fast, hate something. But realize converting these people into builders of positive change may be very difficult. If you want to insight positive change it will take more time and more effort to generate the crowd you desire, but the results will be much closer to the original goal.
If this all sounds like a little hocus-pocus, you’re not alone. There is a Ted.com video that summarizes the human condition as “Our Mind: Incapable of understanding itself”. In a nutshell it simply explains we know our mind does things we can’t really explain (yet). You don’t have to believe in gravity for it to work, it just does so relentlessly. And like gravity, you don’t have to believe thoughts are things for your mind to start creating your thoughts all around you.
Next time your planning something where you want to make a positive change, or build something helpful understand this: Quick results often requires inciting fear and can get messy, while lasting results requires more work but will reward you much greater for this effort.
…now turn that pink bunny into a moving image of you succeeding at your next task and prosper.
