Shankar Vedantam explains the effects of the unconscious brain in his article the Telescope Effect, and how it affects our actions and emotions when it comes to solving world problems. He starts by telling the story of a cruise ship that catches fire hundreds of miles south of Hawaii’s big island. the crew is eventually rescued but the captain’s little Jack Russel mixed terrier named Hokget is left behind. Vedantam then goes on to explain how the news of Hokget begins to spread and a search and rescue team is set up for him. People donated piles of cash for the rescue of one dog stranded in the ocean. Vedantam introduces the idea of how Americans tend to show more compassion when the cause at hand is on a smaller scale. He gives the example
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The telescope effect exposes how we tend to satisfy our emotions over all else. In the article Vedantam demonstrates how most of us would rather buy a birthday present for our child rather than donate that money to save another child’s life. This is because we are emotionally attached to our child and get a better feeling when we give him/her a toy instead of saving some kid’s life that we don’t know. This exhibits an unconscious greed to satisfy our own emotions over doing what benefits the world most. We as humans tend to feed the needs of our own emotions and feelings before helping others. This is not bad, but rather it’s just in our nature, and it is why our unconscious mind plays such a big role in our …show more content…
If this is true then this effect has shaped the world we live in today. if humans are so tied to their love an emotion than many large scale decisions have been main on a small scale basis. For example, During the Red Scare America preached how Communists were the death of the world as we know it. Our country 's officials spent loads of money building bombs and weapons in order to have the “upper hand.” But this tactic affected mass amounts of people. Citizens were told to build bomb shelters, many government officials were falsely accused of being spies, and really our whole country let our emotions get the best of us. The situation was handled by human emotions rather than reasoning and even today tension still exist between America and Communist countries. The Telescope played a huge role in how our world is
The telescope effect exposes how we tend to satisfy our emotions over all else. In the article Vedantam demonstrates how most of us would rather buy a birthday present for our child rather than donate that money to save another child’s life. This is because we are emotionally attached to our child and get a better feeling when we give him/her a toy instead of saving some kid’s life that we don’t know. This exhibits an unconscious greed to satisfy our own emotions over doing what benefits the world most. We as humans tend to feed the needs of our own emotions and feelings before helping others. This is not bad, but rather it’s just in our nature, and it is why our unconscious mind plays such a big role in our …show more content…
If this is true then this effect has shaped the world we live in today. if humans are so tied to their love an emotion than many large scale decisions have been main on a small scale basis. For example, During the Red Scare America preached how Communists were the death of the world as we know it. Our country 's officials spent loads of money building bombs and weapons in order to have the “upper hand.” But this tactic affected mass amounts of people. Citizens were told to build bomb shelters, many government officials were falsely accused of being spies, and really our whole country let our emotions get the best of us. The situation was handled by human emotions rather than reasoning and even today tension still exist between America and Communist countries. The Telescope played a huge role in how our world is