Loving activism has a neurological base.
I was in the audience for a set of short lectures by notable personalities earlier this year, the ones that end up on YouTube: Krista Tippet, George W Bush, The Dalai Lama, and Mahatma Gandhi. They all gave good talks and I liked Gandhi’s the most.
(Well, ok, this only happened in my mind. But I do think if Gandhi gave a mini-lecture today it would sound something like the following.)
“Dear brother and sisters. When things are seemingly falling apart, and hostility and anger and separation seem dominant in the human experiment, we need to remember the things that bind us. Our ideals of brother and sisterhood need to be accentuated in times like this. Neuro-science can even help us here.” (It is not well known that Gandhi had a keen interest in neuro-science: well ok, another happening only in my mind.)
“Many of us already know the neural pathways of anger and our negative bias. Yes, survival and fear do operate with very sensitive triggers for the nervous system to kick in hold us in fight/flight/freeze modes. So it takes work, a lot of work actually. when bombarded with negatives, to find the better angels within us, as the American president Abraham Lincoln called them in his “malice toward none, charity for all” speech near the end of his life and the civil war. But the better angels of our inner nature, psyches and brains are indeed very much in place to serve us.
“Neuro-science has also taught us about the bio-basis for feelings of personal love and connection. Thank you oxytocin, the love hormone. And there is work done on the better angels type of love too. Here is just one abstract on an article about brain activity and altruism, a close cousin of universal love and connection. Let me read it to you.
Altruistic behavior: mapping responses in the brain – Altruism is an important social construct related to human relationships and the way many interpersonal and economic decisions are made. Recent progress in social neuroscience research shows that altruism is associated with a specific pattern of brain activity. The tendency to engage in altruistic behaviors is associated with greater activity within limbic regions such as the nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex in addition to cortical regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction.
“So you may want to go massage your nucleus accumbens. But since that is hard to do, maybe you do a compassion meditation to get started on your practice of seeing and adding to the positive. The world needs it. Then read Mary Oliver or Rumi poetry and do double entrees in your gratitude journal. If you like the wisdom traditions spend some time with the beatitudes or whatever is like them in the non-Christian traditions. The Bhagavad Gita has passages like this of course and all world religions and wisdom traditions.
“And you can still be an activist—look at my life– but let me offer a few tips. Control and channel your anger:
‘I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.‘ [actual quote from Gandhi]
And take it very easy on the judgment thing: ‘I am too conscious of the imperfections of the species to which I belong to be irritated against any member thereof. My remedy is to deal with the wrong wherever I see it, not to hurt the wrongdoer; even as I would not like to be hurt for the wrongs I continually do.‘ [actual quote from Gandhi]
“And if you do find a way to exercise or massage your nucleus accumbens, please email me. You will find my email on the website for non-violent action.”
“Thank you for this important opportunity to share ideas. This is not my normal venue but it has been quite pleasant.”
There you have it. My fantasy about the great twentieth century apostle of peace time traveling to the 21st century. He would get a lot of views on YouTube. There are tens of millions of better angels that need a little encouragement.