Drivers

Humans are complex creatures who have much commonality but also possess wide variances between them. Emotionally however, we are driven largely only by love and fear. Our variances are a combination of genetic predisposition but predominantly in the way we are raised and it can take a very long time to question these influences which were fed into our psyches since we were very young children.

I realize how much my own ideas first imprinted in me came from my parents and how my widening exposure to the world over time molded and expanded my thinking. Here our best tool is the mind's neuroplasticity which can permit us to adapt deeply held dogmas or outright reject them if they ultimately prove to not be beneficial to our lived experience.

We want to find community with others so we do not feel alone in our experiences. Thus belonging to groups can often bring us comfort even when the common theme drawing us in is erroneous or even toxic. We imagine flat earth societies or white supremacist organizations and we see how the importance of self-questioning, independent thinking and research becomes mandatory. We should not invent our own truths without investigation.

Why rhetoric works on people is fascinating and can be boiled down to basic fear. Without critical thinking skills, many can be led to hate the "other" who is accused of being the source of their own suffering; a technique so powerful that wars have begun over it. Transphobes, for example, also use hate because they fear loss of their own status which betrays a deep lack of personal confidence.

Love and fear.