Ayn Randian Individualism: this is selfishness, narcissism, self-centered, and greed justifying individualism, rather than individualism that also includes sacrifice, empathy and caring. These people use their political values-- either conservatism or, even more, libertarianism, to excuse or justify themselves from taking un-compassionate, no, let's call a spade a spade, cold-hearted positions on issues that impact the more vulnerable-- the poor, children, the elderly, the disabled. How is this related to to--down? A core bottom-up value is possessing a sense of "we-ness," caring about others, being conscious of being connected to the people, to the commons, to the big picture eco-systems, being empathic, caring and interdependent. Top-down thinking favors hierarchical, discriminatory ways of perceiving relationships and people. At some point this cold-hearted, non-empathic way of perceiving, relating and functioning reaches a pathological level.
Conservative traditional values and free market values depend upon this kind of selfish, individualistic thinking. They are also not based on reality. There is no such thing in this world as a truly free market. Markets are always influenced by powerful players. They use the lie of the free market to maintain their power. And as I said above, forcing others to live with your "traditional values" is a highly narcissistic behavior.
Hierarchical meritocratic , do-it-yourself thinking: This goes back to the era when kings and emperors claimed to be gods or ordained by god. The idea that the wealthy, that the landed gentry are entitled goes back thousands of years. Today, there's the idea of meritocracy-- that if you have money, if you have a good job, or a successful company you did it on your own. This is a top-down narrative that conservatives and libertarians embrace. The bottom-up narrative is that it takes a village, that if a person is successful that success is built upon the use of the commons-- the educational system, the roads, the laws, the resources we all own and share. Even celebration of the independence of the automobile is an illusion. Drivers depend more upon public funding of roads, bridges, etcetera than passengers on trains and other public transportation. But since they are driving as individuals, it seems they are more independent.
This is parasitic stuff. You do NOT earn a bigger share of the use and exploitation of the commons because your parents had money. You do not get to avoid paying for externalities (costs of pollution, of using roads, of using the legal system) because you are a bigger business. We know now that trickle-down theory is a fraud that increases parasitism. We know that the 99% put more money into the economy-- that the ultra-wealthy are hoarders with what can be obsessive-compulsive needs to control and retain money, power and things.
The Need to Control: Obsessive compulsive disorder-- OCD is a mental illness that is a way that excessive top-down brain activity can manifest-- attempting to exert excessive, unnatural, unhealthy control on one's world. That seems to be a top-down way of seeing and living.
This is where traditional values conservatism violates the freedoms of anyone who disagrees with them or lives differently.
Top-down brain; Rigid Ways to Define the World: Ninety-eight percent of the brain is dedicated to top-down filtering of experience. If the brain's top-down filtering becomes overactive, it can lead to perceptions of reality that are distorted or downright delusional. Schizophrenia and delusions are cases where the brain makes things up. Top-down, authoritarian cultures and their values, like traditional values can be integrated into top-down perceptual filtering so people only see is what the cultures define. This is a kind of blindness, a kind of denial that can create delusion and illusion that fails to work well in the reality-based world.
This is a start. What are your thoughts on ways that top-down, hierarchical, non-empathic, self-centered, quantifying (vs system-conscious) values and ways of thinking affect people and culture?
Also, bottom-up mind, culture and values can also run askew, leading to psychological disorders and pathology. I'll get into that in another article.
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