Absolutism and Groupthink

The propensity towards corruption of undisputed authority and the tendency to dysfunctional decisions of very cohesive groups are facts recognized by sociologists and psychologists. Both phenomena have been carefully studied by academia. The problems of any society worsen when the two trends are combined in one single scenario.

Let us talk first about absolutism. Since no ruler would accept that his or her behavior were analyzed by scientists, social psychologists Joris Lammers and Adam Galinsky, among others, have recurred to studies with volunteers who have been previously primed as powerful (power prime​d) and brought to act in artificial situations where they may exercise categorical authority.

Priming techniques include, among many, the self-affirming repetition of phrases such as 'I am the one in command', or the reliving of past circumstances in which participants had full control of events. During Insight II, a motivational workshop which this columnist attended years ago, the facilitators played ‘Gonna Fly Now’, the Rocky film’s musical hit, when they wanted to grow the participants' sense of authority. When we, participants, heard 'Gonna Fly Now´ we felt, I must confess, really empowered to immediately perform with much energy the assigned tasks. We were indeed primed for power.

In one of the simulations led by Drs. Lammers and Galinsky, participants had to rate both their own behavior and that of third parties, based on an ethical scale from one (totally immoral) to nine (totally acceptable) in a large number of entries. The test results showed not only negative influence of power in ethical conduct but also that the owners of authority tend to judge others with a moral stick stricter than that with which they measure themselves. The weak -the unprimed- in contrast, applied similar metrics both to judge themselves as to measure the powerful. According to Dr. Galinsky, power inclines  those who have it toward either the breaking of the rules or toward their free interpretation  so that they may manipulate evidence to suit their purposes.

​​​​The seco​​nd problem around excessive leadership comes from the so-called groupthink, a social anomaly, though its denomination entails a positive connotation. Groupthink is an abnormal way of acting in which the members of a group, seeking to maintain unanimous agreement, tend to close their eyes to indisputable realities and ignore reasonable courses of action. The cohesive groups that always appear around the powerful -the devoted to the cause, the faithful servants of the leader, the beneficiaries of the autocratic system- are particularly prone to this behavior.

Back in the seventies, American psychologist Irving Janis documented in detail the causes and symptoms of groupthink . Causes include the homogeneity of the group (political, social, religious ...), the spontaneous or directed isolation from external sources of information and the authoritarian leadership of the ruler in control -the subject of this note.  Symptoms are, among others, the blind belief in the morality of the group, the indiscriminate disqualification of those who do not belong to it, the pressure to 'straighten' the disloyal, and the censorship of ideas deviating from consensus.

​The scientific study of the harms of groupthink is limited by the implicit difficulty to quantify subjective factors. Despite this limitation, the detrimental impact of groupthink is clear and examples abound. Two outstanding contemporary fiascos originated in groupthink environments are the American invasion to Iraq without conclusive evidence to justify it and the concentration of modern physics research over the past three decades in the so-called string theory, a field with questionable scientific future.

It is thus evident that strong leaders with unconditional followers cause major damage to any society or group. Those in power who skillfully manipulate their players to win their loyalty would result most damaging in any circumstance. Nothing can be as socially harmful as a corrupted control with majority support.

For this reason the reelection of authoritarian rulers with high electoral capital, whether legitimate or negotiated, is as inconvenient as risky. Such reelections -some of peoples, other of dynasties- so fashionable in the 21st century Latin America, are already showing their unfortunate consequences in this region.

Gustavo Estrada
Author of ‘INNER HARMONY through MINDFULNESS MEDITATION’
www.harmonypresent.com ​​

Sounds and Silences

There are times when we want to focus on something—reading a text, listening to a presentation, doing a complicated task—and, without even noticing, our mind flies off in a different direction. We then send us encouraging messages, I'm attentive! I must not wander! Come on! But soon distractions are back in the game and beat us again. Our brain lacks modules to command mental concentration, in the way it gives instructions to initiate more simple things as making a phone call or going out to lunch.

Focusing on something is inhibiting all interfering signals; digressions result from surrendering to such signals. Concentration therefore does not result from the excitation of neuronal circuits that keep us tuned to the task of the moment but from inhibiting the distracting signals fired randomly by our mental conditioning—the preferences and dislikes—sown on us by media and culture. The neural mechanisms that command actions are known as excitatory circuits; those which stop tasks are called inhibitory circuits. The latter are as important as the former and the balance between the two is crucial to our performance.

Are there exercises to improve concentration? Yes, and they are helpful: Practicing hatha yoga, staying still for long periods, identifying differences in two similar pictures... Because of the way it works, however, mindfulness meditation is the best way to improve concentration.

Once motionless, silent and with mouth and eyes closed, the meditator leaves with no job, for the duration of the practice, the brain circuits that drive motion, and that manage the functions of talking, eating and seeing; leaving such circuits with no duty is inhibiting their work. For example, just by closing our eyes, we are silencing one fifth of our neurons; vision is one of the functions with highest demand of brain-power.

Readers may get a rough idea of the functioning of the inhibitory mechanisms by focusing their attention for a few seconds on the contact areas of their skin with their clothes, or of their body with the chair where they are sitting. With practice and time, people will detect much more subtle signals than those resulting from physical contact.

In the rotation of attention around the body and in the perception of sensations commonly ignored, meditators exercises their inhibitory circuits, forcing them to a continuous on/off switching mode during the whole session. This repeated activation/deactivation of neuronal circuits is equivalent to the successive tension/release of tendons and muscle fibers during physical exercise.

Inhibitory mechanisms are charged with maintaining human consciousness free from irrelevant information that diverts it from the successful completion of the task at hand. The exercise of these mechanisms leads to a substantial increase in our ability to concentrate.

Do other forms of meditation lead to similar improvements? Yes, although on a smaller scale. With continued exercise of mindfulness, the meditator reaches a state of pleasant silence without pursuing it. It is not so with other meditation approaches that appease the busy mind with whimsical tricks. For example, there are practices, such as transcendental meditation, that include verbal or mental repetition of mantras or sacred words that inevitably block the ‘unsearched’ arrival of pure mental silence. In mindfulness meditation there are no chants, essences, pictures or sounds... Even the word 'silence', when pronounced, produces noise.

"In any interpretation,” I heard a master guitarist saying, "sounds are as important as silences." It is similar for brain activity. This virtuous musician added that, during his rehearsals, his attention always focuses on both notes and pauses, that is, sounds and silences. Our frantic daily routine prevents us from listening to the screams of our mind and, even less, does not leave room to pay attention to its infrequent moments of calm.

Mindfulness is the permanent observation of sounds and silences in our head. Mindfulness meditation is, in turn, the workout of inhibitory circuits that, once strengthened, stop unnecessary noise. Concentration then becomes a natural and spontaneous activity which does not require willpower.

Gustavo Estrada
Autor de ‘Hacia el Buda desde el occidente’
http://www.harmonypresent.com/

Could Robots Meditate?

Mindfulness meditation is a concentration exercise during which meditators observe, attentively, impartially and detachedly, their breathing, their sensations or their mental states. A modern robot is a computerized machine that can autonomously do the job of a person.

The word 'robot', coined by Isaac Asimov in 1941, was the exclusive domain of fantasy until a few decades ago. However, with the extraordinary scientific developments of the 21st century, intelligent machines invaded all fields of human activity and are now performing tasks never dreamed of before. Could modern robots meditate?

Three decades ago the word 'robot' used to bring to my head R2-D2, the friendly automat of ‘Star Wars'. Nowadays I immediately associate the same word with the prodigious Google driverless car. When I see the videos about this equipment in Internet, I must pinch myself to assimilate that, unlike R2-D2, the Google car is not science fiction and that it will be of common use in less than a decade. This is why I use its features to discuss the subject of this note.

According to Sridhar Lakshmanan, an expert in driverless vehicles, a truly autonomous car demands three components: (1) a global positioning system (GPS), (2) a system for the recognition of the surroundings of the auto, and (3) a super-software that, by integrating the two previous functions, coordinates the implementation of the equivalent work that otherwise a driver would perform.

To start the trip, the passenger, using an intelligent phone, reports his or her destination to the car. Component 1, the GPS, locates the current position while a proven satellite imagery technology, available for quite some time now, plans the requested route. Once the start and end points have been located, component 2, a set of radars, cameras and lasers, enters the action for a 360-degree continuous monitoring throughout the whole trip.

The recognition system exercises a level of ‘mindfulness’ that a human being could hardly perform. Component 2 discerns every minute detail on the four sides of the vehicle, unceasingly checking everything that moves (cars, cyclists, people, workers on the way...) and everything that is static (parked cars, traffic lights, signs, posts…). The super-software is the component 3 that replaces the driver, which, at the end of the route, it even reminds passengers for they not to forget their belongings as they step out from the car.

Could a Google car meditate? To answer this it is necessary to clarify the word 'meditation' since it has many variations. Obviously, such sophisticated machine could well make us to believe that it is meditating with one of the many existing approaches by, for example, repeating loudly 'powerful' mantras, visibly counting the beads of a rosary (a mala), displaying in panels its work to decipher impenetrable paradoxes (koans), or singing sacred chants in Sanskrit.  

However, as an electronic device does not work with neuronal signals and lacks biological qualities (breathing, sensations, mental states ...) to focus on, the farthest Google cars could go to convince us that they are practicing mindfulness meditation would be to stay quiet and still, with their radars, lasers and cameras off. A casual observer would never think that the device is meditating but that it is out of service.

Both the question of this note and its answers are naive: A robot will never make us believe that it is practicing meditation, of any kind and, even less, mindfulness meditation. It must be emphasized, however, that robots, by design, cannot get distracted, unless they are broken, and, consequently, any exercise to improve their concentration skills is meaningless and adds nothing to their capacities.

At the very moment that a Google car diverted from its job, an accident will occur. A robot at work must always remain ‘attentive and conscious': The machine is either focused on performing the task of the moment or it is off, at rest. It is us, humans -not they, the robots- who have to practice mindfulness meditation, hoping that our concentration skills improve, as it actually occurs. Taking further the parallel of people versus Google cars, we should always be either focused (actively on) while awake, or asleep (turned off) as we rest. Mindfulness meditation does help us to carry out both tasks properly.

Gustavo Estrada
Author of ‘INNER HARMONY through MINDFULNESS MEDITATION’
www.harmonypresent.com