A Measure of Democracy
Those who cannot represent themselves will be represented. -- Karl Marx, 1852.
How wonderful it is that everyone, great and small, can immediately help bring about justice by giving of themselves! You can always — always — give something, even if it's a simple act of kindness! -- Anne Frank, 1944.
There is nothing to stop the spiritual and moral darkness of state absolutism except the critical reason of a single, fairly intelligent, mentally stable stratum of society. – CG Jung, 1957.
If neuroscience makes political science a hard science then what does a graph of democracy look like? Are there data visualizations to help us understand Jung's stratum, Marx's assertion, and Frank's optimism? Before a society can be called a democracy, the citizens themselves must consider it a democracy. In order for a citizen to properly consider whether or not they live in a democracy, they need the ability to think like a mature human. Citizens capable of mature thinking is a prerequisite to democracy; it is required to sustain a democracy; it is a useful metric for neuropolitical data visualizations.
Neuroscientists, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), can measure blood flow in the brain under various mental activities. For the brain-data visualizations sketched here, imagine that we have measured the volume of blood flow to each citizen's prefrontal cortex during political decision making.
The prefrontal cortex is the most recently evolved part of the human brain. It is also takes the longest to fully mature: about 25 years. During considered decision making the prefrontal cortex recruits input from other brain regions. It accesses long and short term memory, considers many streams of information, and balances short-term rewards with long-term goals. The prefrontal cortex is known as the 'glue of cognition'; it allows us to make decision as mature humans.
Even lizards have amygdalae. In humans this brain region is responsible for quick survival decisions. When faced with a threat is it best to fight, flee, freeze, or fawn? When the amygdalae are overstimulated not much blood flows to the prefrontal cortex and full-brained thinking is not possible.
The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies. -- Henry Adams, 1907.
Full-brain thinking in humans can be impaired in many ways. Here I consider just two: trauma reduces the capacity for critical thought; unrestrained power reduces the capacity for compassionate thought.
Humans have long understood that power corrupts. Advances in neuroscience make the corrupting effect of power on the human brain directly measurable. A recent fMRI study demonstrated that selfish leaders show reduced neural activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [Pauwels]. You can see for yourself that wealth correlates negatively with empathy at any crosswalk: luxury cars are the least likely to to stop for pedestrians [Reviews].
Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think. ― Bessel A. van der Kolk
Humans have long understood that trauma harms the mind. The Epic of Gilgamesh, our oldest piece of extant literature, (2100 BCE), describes Gilgamesh's mental torment after witnessing the death of his close friend. Since then terms such as combat fatigue, war neurosis, shell shock, and post traumatic stress disorder have been used to describe the mental distress of war veterans. Recent advances in neuroscience make the negative effect of trauma on the human brain directly measurable. A 2020 review article concluded that exposure to trauma causes the amygdalae to become over-stimulated and the prefrontal cortex to atrophy [Maynard].
Fear is the foundation of most governments. – John Adams
The problem with most Americans is that they don't like any question that takes more than ten seconds to answer. – Gore Vidal
Too much power harms a human brain by damaging the prefrontal cortex. Too much trauma harms a human brain by overstimulating the amygdalae. In wealthy societies these individual vulnerabilities threaten to divide us into traumatized poor and apathetic rich. The traumatized poor are stuck in amygdala thinking and cannot responsibly restrain the powerful. The rich and powerful are not held accountable and experience frontal lobe atrophy; they become first psychologically and then physiologically incapable of valuing other humans; they exploit and further traumatize the poor.
The physiological damage caused by excess trauma and excess wealth, like the damage caused by excess high fructose corn syrup, suggests that we evolved under very different conditions. During evolutionary times there was very likely much less excess wealth than there is today. Since over-sized heads and 25-year maturation times have high survival costs, we very likely made use of our full brains. These two likelihoods together are represented graphically in figure 1a. Each dot represent an early human. The horizontal direction represents wealth. There was little excess wealth and the dots (humans) are clustered near the middle. The vertical direction represents full brain use. Almost everyone used their full brain and we were all clustered near the top.
For a very different example, consider the 'Democratic Republic of Boozelandia.' In Boozelandia 90% of citizens drink booze like water. The ruling 10% produce, promote, promote, promote, and profit from selling the stuff. The 90% are mostly brain damaged by alcohol, live lives of meaningless toil, and fail to hold the ruling 10% accountable. The ruling 10% are brain damaged by unrestrained power, live lives of meaningless luxury, and have their product in schools. Imagine that each citizen of Boozelandia is scanned with a fMRI while they are making political decisions. Figure 1b shows the volume of blood flow to the prefrontal cortex of each citizen on the vertical axis along with their wealth on the horizontal axis. The cluster of humans to the lower left are intoxicated by alcohol and cannot politically represent themselves. The cluster to the lower right are humans intoxicated by power and are incapable of humane thought. 'Democratic' implies 'for the people' and this distribution of brain-damaged citizens cannot be considered a democracy.
Consider the citizens of two ancient Greek city-states. In Sparta the individual was subservient to the state. Meals were taken communally in large halls. All children left home at age 8 for military boarding school. No one was rich, no one was poor. There was no art or culture outside of the art of war. Frontal-lobe thinking vs wealth for ancient Spartan citizens is sketched in figure 1c: all citizens had about the same wealth and few political decisions were made with full-brain thinking.
In ancient Athens there was a considerable distribution of wealth among citizens. However, political and military leaders were chosen by lottery from among all citizens, preventing wealth from directly purchasing power. The brain-damaging effect of excess power was further restrained by the institution of ostracism; by popular vote potential tyrants could be expelled from the city for ten years. Full-brain thinking verses wealth for Athenian citizens is sketched in figure 1d: all citizens had a share of power and none were traumatically poor.
Finally, consider the United States of America today. Wealth inequality is at an all time high: a few individuals have more combined wealth than the poorest 50%. This wealth is openly exchanged for political power. Over 14 billion dollars was spent in the 2020 US presidential election, more than doubling the previous record set in 2016 [Open]. At the same time, 60% of citizens live paycheck-to-paycheck and half of renters struggle to stay housed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds [CDC]: 64% of US adults had at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) that could lead to trauma; 25% of US girls and 8% of US boys experience child sexual abuse; rates of child abuse and neglect are five times higher for children in families with low socioeconomic status. The CDC study concluded that, “Toxic stress from ACEs can negatively affect children’s brain development, immune systems, and stress-response systems. These changes can affect children’s attention, decision-making, and learning.”
Full-brain thinking versus wealth for the United States is sketched in figure 2. Jung's stratum is represented by the arc near the top of the graph. These humans have both enough wealth and enough brain health to support a government for and by the people. The cluster at the lower right represents the frontal-cortex-atrophied ruling class. These leaders are physically incapable of humane thought and enrich themselves through oppression, war, and climate destruction. The cluster in the lower left represents traumatized humans with short attention spans, little wealth, and unrealized political power. By all measures Jung's stratum is thinning and we are careening towards the moral darkness of state absolutism.
It is not only the slave or serf who is ameliorated in becoming free. The master himself did not gain less in every point of view, for absolute power corrupts the best natures. – Lamartine, 1848
Humans evolved in an egalitarian environment where everyone had a share of the wealth and political power. We are genetically programmed to thrive in such an environment. Just as the bodies of modern humans are made sick by excess soda pop, our minds are made sick by excess wealth and excess trauma. The measure of democracy presented here makes Anne Frank's optimism clear: simple acts of kindness humanize us, they lift us up the vertical axis of the data graphics, they make make full-brain thinking, and democracy, possible. The neuropolitical approach also makes clear:
The first goal of a democracy is to reduce trauma.
Tax the rich, it is for their own good.
Voting for wealthy incumbents is twice wrong.
The political struggle in the US today is not red vs blue, rather amygdala vs full-brain thinking.
Police and military duty cannot responsibly start until after age 25.
The proper goal of education is not to memorize facts, rather to develop full-brain thinking.
The first responsibility of citizens is to be nice.
References
Kipnis: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-12496-011
Brinke: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352250X15001980
Useen: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/
Pauwels: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-98226-001
Reviews: https://www.reviews.com/insurance/car/study-the-vehicles-most-and-least-likely-to-stop-for-pedestrians-at-a-crosswalk/
CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/fastfact.html
Maynard: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-exactly-does-ptsd-do-to-the-brain-2797210
Open: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/2020-cycle-cost-14p4-billion-doubling-16/