TLDR; our complex human brains have two parts, the primary lizard brain that seeks comforts and survival, and the secondary rational brain that struggles to overcome the primary brain's urges. It found a way to do so, creating shame and guilt to use comfort against the lizard brain, but the discovery of FA and HAES for weak minded people has disarmed and impeded shame from doing its work. Rationality has to find a new way to make the lizard brain uncomfortable with comfort.
During my time at university I learned about an interesting theory that rationality stemmed from language, and not the other way around. When we developed the physical capacity to make sounds, our minds had to catch up in order to understand those sounds and utilize them to make speech. You don't need to be smart to yell, but you need to be smart to understand what another person is yelling about Speech first, then rationality.
If this is true, (and for sake of argument let's say it is,) rationality is secondary to our primal instincts, emotions and desires come first. Remember this: rationality and decision making come second. This can explain a lot of things; why we are afraid of the dark even though we know there isn't a monster under the bed. Why we fall in love with people who we cannot be with. Why we want things we should not have. Why panic attacks can linger for hours even after a trigger has passed (crowds, for example). Why we buy things we cannot afford. Our primary, "lizard brain" desires, and our first instinct is to satisfy that desire. Prepare for the monster that isn't there, buy the thing you don't need, love the married person you can't have.
This means the ability to control your primal urges and natural instinct takes an incredible feat of rational strength. You have to convince your lizard brain to change its mind, using your own rationality. The weak secondary brain has to overpower the strong primary brain that got you from the beginning of life on planet Earth into the 21th century alive.
Hold this thought; we'll come back to it in just a moment.
Now, almost all things humans have invented have been invented to make our lives easier. Toilets so we don't have to hike off and bury our shit, pens with ink so we don't have to remember everything, airplanes so we don't have to make a pilgrimage every time we want to visit family. Agricultural progress so we don't have to struggle to eat. Pantries and refrigerators so we can store copious amounts of food for months.
We invent these things because our primal nature wants many things, but ultimately, comfort. Comfort means safety. If you are comfortable it means you're not being hunted, you're not sick, you're not starving, you're not in danger. Comfort is the perfect life. Our primitive lizard brain seeks comfort and our rationality develops it for us. For the most part, this has led to our progress and survival.
But we went too far. We have too much of a good thing.
Coming full circle, our own rationality has fed our lizard brain to maximum comfort, which becomes an overdose so to speak, and only the rationality can undo it. The fatty's rational mind bought a fridge and food to stock it and a couch to sit on, all to feed the lizard brain. It overdosed on comfort, it got fat, it damaged itself. The lizard brain is evolved to survive, not thrive, it can't recognize the concept of "too much". The rational mind was allowed to do this overdose because it directly assisted the lizard brain. But what they need is for the rational brain to overcome the lizard brain and go against it, for their mind to overcome their body's desires.
If you are rationally weak, you will not be able to overcome the primal urge to seek comfort and you will not be able to cope with discomfort for the sake of better things. Fat people have weak minds, and will use the rational part of their brain to latch onto HAES to further satisfy their lizard brain without the internal battle that creates shame and guilt. Shame and guilt come from the rational brain knowing it is not assisting greater things, even at the lizard brain's expense.
What we as a society, and more so what fat people need, is to understand and accept that while comfort feels good, it is no longer good for us. We want it to be good, we think it is good, because it pleases our strong, primary brain. The core and cause of our success. Our desire for comfort allowed us to escape from predators, provide for ourselves, breed. We need to use our secondary, rational mind to fight that now. We need to look at the facts that disagree with our lizard brain and admit that even if they feel bad they are good. We need to recognize that comfort is the enemy now.
Being physically comfortable; not exercising, eating treats, sitting down, is bad for us. It signals "survival" to the stupid lizard brain but it says, "I am dying" to the rational brain. The rational brain, the scientific studier of facts, tells us that we are sick, unhealthy, dying, that we have to change. This disagreement in our own heads creates shame. It creates guilt and self-loathing because it bothers us (and it should) that our rationality cannot outweigh our instinct and our want.
This would have helped us, it would have sparked the change that would have saved us from the obesity epidemic, until the lizard brain found a new weapon to disarm our rationality: "You're perfect just the way you are, you don’t have to change. Society is the problem, you're beautiful!" HAES. HAES feeds both the rational mind that is weak and tired and our lizard brain that seeks comfort from everything, even the shame that rationality was giving us. Rationality was winning by creating shame so uncomfortable that more comfort (food, couch time, TV) made it worse. Rationality’s shame had found a way to use comfort against the lizard brain and HAES has shut it down for every person with a frail rational mind.
The rational mind is exhausted from shame and struggling to usurp the primary brain, and while we shitizens use each other and the world around us to strengthen our rational brain to overcome our lizard brain, the weaker minded people gave up, latched onto FA and HAES as their salvation from discomfort. Once again, the rational mind has to find a way to use the comfort of FA and HAES against the lizard brain.
Any ideas how?
Submitted May 22, 2015 at 10:40PM by FatShamingShitLady http://ift.tt/1FIlJnM fatpeoplehate
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