Lizard Brain
Are We Living in an IDIOCRACY?
Last night, Norbert and I watched the 2006 satirical sci-fi comedy, Idiocracy, which depicts a population driven by bodily urges, operating solely from their lizard brains, and “wallowing” in overconsumption.
This movie was made in the early 2000s, before the first iPhone was out on the market and when social media was still a fledgling and not yet a phenomenon. At the time, television was the main culprit for rotting our brains; the notion of having a tiny computer in the palm of your hand that could give you instant access to all matters of entertainment, communication, and consumerism was not yet a ubiquitous reality. I’m sure the directors had no idea how quickly our population would devolve into something similar to what their movie depicts, and how their predictions for 500 years in the future were much closer than they anticipated.
Watching this movie made me reflect on how reptilian my relationship with my phone is—pure instinct, as if I needed my phone for basic survival.
According to neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean, “the reptilian complex is said to control all of the instinctual and impulsive actions, while the neomammalian complex is responsible for keeping the primitive instincts constrained.” MacLean proposed that the reptilian complex was responsible for species-typical instinctual behaviours involved in aggression, dominance, territoriality, and ritual displays.
These instinctual behaviors were developed in order for our species to survive; survival of the fittest. Now that we are no longer engaged in a daily battle of survival, our reptilian brain has latched on to other objectives, such as keeping us addicted beyond reason to the little machines that give us quick dopamine hits. Like the characters in the movie addicted to their inane television shows and bawdy wrestling matches, we as a society are deeply addicted to the many pleasures—and promises—provided by our smartphones and the internet.
Of course, what the internet provides us with is a complex mélange of consumerism, self-improvement, and humor (that is often poking fun at our own modern malaise). It’s like this: our fast-food diets and mass-produced meals no longer give us a diversity of hearty nutrients, so we must bottle those nutrients up and sell them back to the consumer. Our family units are living on little self-made islands, without the guidance gained by intergenerational relationships and the safety net provided by strong community networks. As parents, we are floundering. And so, the internet serves us what we’re looking for—wisdom—and packages it up as a toddler master class for $99 or a membership that gains you access to workshops and a judgement-free community ($84 for the first 3 months).
The modern condition means that we’re disconnected—from ourselves, our community, our planet. The internet provides us with countless ways to fill that hole, mostly by throwing money at the problem. But loneliness, spiritual disconnection, and climate grief cannot be solved with quick dopamine hits.
My reptilian reliance on my phone has turned this inanimate object into a lifesaver that I cling to in a world (inner and outer) rife with deep unease. The way I see it, in our modern world, the reptilian complex is winning out. Here lizard lizard.
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