Thread:

I woke up thinking about neuroplasticity, hate, racism, and a post-Trump America.

I’ve been reading a bit lately on neuroplasticity, habit and addiction.

Neuroplasticity is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and/or reorganization.

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Neuroplasticity can be quick (studies have shown new neural pathways can be built in *days*) and also can be for good or ill.

Neuroplasticity explains how, for instance, so many in our country fell into the hole of Fox News and now OAN and Q.

It explains the Trump cult.

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Certain neural patterns of connection were established and *grooved* into the brains of viewers over time to the point that they are rutted and well-worn.

Another example is the way in which some of us, over time, end up reaching for a glass of wine at 5 pm every day ... 3/

... and eventually the glass becomes a whole bottle or beyond.

But here’s the good news: neuroplasticity also allows us to “jump the groove.”

We can rewire the human brain for good, in other words, and quickly.

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While I’ve been lying here in bed (see, now you know how geeky weird I feel writing this while my kids are still sleeping and I’m in the dark), I did some basic research on neuroplasticity and racism.

Racism is taught. We can all agree on this, yes?

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It is programmed into our brains along neural pathways that are culturally reinforced for our entire lives. Our brains are trained for white supremacy, in other words.

Those ruts may be deep, but they are not permanent, even in folks imbedded in white supremacist movements.

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There are folks out there who are former neo nazis doing the work of helping others to relearn how to love instead of hate. It may seem rare, but my point is that it is not impossible.

Brain science explains how.

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Predictably, I am not the first person to consider this.

It looks like the (limited number of) scientific studies on this show that negative associations, for instance, as to skin color can begin to be trained out of the (white) human brain in a matter of hours.

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Read that again.

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Here is an article from pre-Trump 2016 that discusses this idea from a slightly different angle than my approach to the topic, in case you don’t believe me.

/10 https://www.bustle.com/articles/184790-can-you-unlearn-racism-by-re-training-your-brain

It looks like only one book has been written on this topic— a self-published tome of 523 pages with no chapter headings that sounds as hard to access as neuroscience might seem to others.

But it’s there.

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Here’s the thing, though, that I want to ask: can we “hop the groove” out of hate in America?

Can we rewire our national consciousness toward anti-racism instead of racism?

The answer seems to be yes.

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Anyone who has experienced neuroplasticity in action can tell you it’s miraculous.

I mean that literally: it feels like a miracle.

In a matter of days you can hop from hopelessness, dire conviction that nothing will ever change, to a whole new way of thought and function. 13/

Now, please don’t take this as an pat answer to systemic racism as embedded in all our institutions, from top to bottom. We have an enormous amount of work to do, oh my god.

We have *centuries* of programming to unlearn.

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However, the ability to reroute the American mindset away from racism and hate is REAL at least in theory, and perhaps in practice.

We need to start thinking about what that reprogramming might look like in action, because it is a key to rapid, societal, structural change.

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As the saying goes, change the inner, change the outer.

Rewire the brain away from hate and toward equity, rewire the *system* of the brain, & you rewire *action* that emerges thereafter, all the way to the most complex actions required by America as a collective to heal.

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This is a long way of saying that we should start considering the miracles we need to create on the other side of this.

I’ve experienced what neuroplasticity looks like in action, and it changes everything, and fast.

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In Hindu philosophy, the term samskaras (not samsara, that’s different), describes the ruts into which we fall that may last lifetimes.

I believe our work here is to jump those ruts. Spiritually or scientifically or morally, it is WHY WE ARE HERE at this moment in history.

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I want to see us get out of this pit.

I believe we can do it. I believe it can happen faster than we think. I believe we can consciously choose to shift the neural pathways of individuals and whole cultures, and FAST, with the right series of choices.

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I’d love to have folks drop any reference points into the comments for the work that may be underway in neuroscience on this issue, because I haven’t found much in this mornings research.

Who’s doing this work? Can we amplify it?

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Can we learn to think differently as a nation and build systems to end hate for good?

YES WE CAN. WE MUST.

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Pollyannaish or no, foolish or no, we need big thinking right now.

Let’s work together toward radical, fast, human change, from the tiniest neurons to the biggest systems.

Let’s do it.

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Just a little light thinking on a Thursday morning.

Love to all.

/end

PS. We should be making mental health care free for every American.

We should be engaged in nationwide discussions on how to effect reparations & then provide them.

Yesterday, California was the first state to begin that process. Here’s to progress. May it spread like wildfire.