[This is
the fourth part of a series. To begin at
beginning, please go to the Introduction.]
1: The Classical Era
The
left brain ascended and we got the Classical Era exemplified by the Golden Age
of Greece. It was driven by reading and writing a symbolic alphabet. The left
brain digs symbols and language, what could be better than putting them
together? Literacy and education rose. A citizen (men who owned property) was
expected to be literate and schooled. This is the first time literacy expanded
past the few priests and scribes.
Writing
drove the left brain upward. When most people write they use their right hand. The
right hand is connected to the left side of the brain. Writing was a single
handed activity until the invention of the typewriter. It created a direct link
to the left brain.
As
the left brain ascended it came into balance with the right brain. This
presented an explosion of new ideas and the minds to develop these ideas.
Ancient Greece gave birth to mathematics, logic, the natural sciences,
philosophy, drama, and democracy. When the two sides of the brain are balanced
it creates an explosion of new thought.
Though
relatively balanced, the two sides of the brain swapped the lead for a few
centuries. Sophocles was more right, Plato was very left, Aristotle was a
swinger. He taught Alexander the Great who shared this great learning and the
written language through conquests across the known world. All in all, the two
sides maintained a balance from the 5th century B.C. until well into
the Roman Empire. With the rise of the Empire, the left brain rose to surpass
the right brain for the first time.
[This is
a good time to remind you, that I’m talking in wide generalities. The partnership
and rivalry between the hemispheres was always in play, from year to year,
region to region and person to person.]
The
Romans were the first left brain dominant society. They made things work. They
didn’t create much on their own, except during the Republic era when the two
hemispheres sat at a balance. (The conflict between the two sides is the
undercurrent argument in both of Shakespeare’s plays Julius Caesar and Antony and
Cleopatra). Once Caesar Augustus won, became the Emperor and engineered the
Roman Empire, the left brain was off and running. [i]
The
left brain was very good at running an empire. It excelled for centuries. The
Roman Empire was a great bureaucracy. It was a developed system. It was not so
much a time of great invention as it was a time of incorporating and perfecting
the inventions of others. They made everything the Greeks and Roman Republic had
come up with more efficient and workable. This was the strength of the Romans
and it is the strength of the left brain. The entire empire settled into a
steady progress. Even when the leader at the top was a total nutcase, the
institution kept going.
The
Right Brain maintained a strong support which kept the Empire near a balance. One
contribution of the right brain was in the way the Romans incorporated the
peoples and the cultures they conquered. They assimilated them. The conquered
people for the most part could keep their own beliefs, practices and even their
own leaders. They only had to accept a few ideas and systems from the Romans, along
with paying taxes, not revolting and giving up their sovereignty. The Romans
would run things and they were very good at running things. This worked for
most peoples. [ii]
One
way the Romans assimilated other cultures was in the gods question: “Do you
have your own gods? Sure, they can be in the Pantheon. We probably already
believe in your gods, we just call them by other names.” This polytheistic view
worked for most people. Where the Romans ran into trouble was with the
monotheists. Once you believe in only one God, then your God is better than
everyone else’s gods. You’re right and everyone else is wrong. It’s very left
brained. You can’t buy into a right brained Roman many-god solution if you only
have one God. This is why the Romans had a particular problem with first the
Jews and then the Christians. [iii] [iv] [v]
Even
for the developing left brained Romans, the zealotry of the Christians was a
reason to toss them to the lions.
After
the first thriving years of the Empire where invention was matched with
engineering something happened. The autocracy and bureaucracy of the Empire
overtook the right brain. The emphases shifted away from the natural and invention
to concepts, systems and rules. Art, poetry and life became abstracted. Remember
the left brain is more comfortable with abstraction and symbol than the real
and natural. One place this took over was in the rise of Christianity and the
Roman Catholic Church. Over the first four centuries after Jesus Christ, his
teachings became more rigid and dogmatic. Whether this was the normal course of
any belief system or a result of the left brain dominant culture of the Roman Empire
is hard to say. The dominant left brain found an ally in the Christian
movement. In turn, Christian belief became more rigid, the priests/nuns became
celibate, Jesus became the symbolic ‘son of God’ rather than the ‘son of man’, and
the virgin birth was conceived. Beliefs were crafted by severe left brain
thinking and all that was natural was removed.[vi]
By
the early fourth century, Constantine embraced Christianity calling for
religious tolerance. By the end of the century, paganism was outlawed. The
eastern half of the Empire split from the western half. It had always been more
right brained Greek than the west. The Church split between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The east remained as the Byzantine
Empire while the western part of the empire declined and was overrun by
barbarians.
The
true decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a topic for many volumes of books.
The deterioration of the institutions of the empire was both a cause and a
result of this decline. The legal system became corrupt. Romans passed on the
duty of being soldiers to foreigners and mercenaries. There was a decline in
literacy and education. The industriousness that created the empire was
exchanged for indulgence in the excesses of privileges offered by wealth. The
ruling class became indifferent to ruling. Still, the system was so good the decline
of the Empire took centuries.
2: The Dark and Medieval Ages
After
a while the left hemisphere declined. It seems the left brain tried to stand
alone without the right brain or with the right brain in servitude to the left.
The left side of the brain deteriorated rapidly leaving a weakened right brain.
For the decline of the Roman Empire was a decline in the left hemisphere’s
dominance. I believe that the right hemisphere did not rise to surpass the
left, but the left declined. This is an important distinction that will matter
later.
The
left brain diminished and the right brain had to take back the reins. In the
west, the decline disintegrated into the “dark ages.”
Scholars
of the Early Middle Ages (c. 5th – 10th Century A.D.)
tend to dislike the term “Dark Ages” as it diminishes the times. This period
was not as dark as often ascribed. However, from the point of view of this
argument, this period showed a decline in brain function and progress. I’m
trying to avoid a left brain centric view that would throw out the entire human
experience from the decline of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance;
however this part was pretty bleak.
It
needs to be said, that while Europe plunged into the Dark Ages, the Muslims,
Jews and the Moors progressed. They maintained a strong left brain culture
based in most part on their religion’s emphasis on the word and literacy. This
helped them keep the two sides of the brain in greater balance with the left
brain slightly leading. [vii]
The
Catholic Church did not stress the importance of reading. Most of the local
clergy leading small congregations were illiterate. The Church understood that
to maintain power it helps to control the information and the interpretation of
that information. Also, most kings and leaders remained illiterate. Charlemagne
the Great was unable to read and write all but his name.
At
the core of the church a left brain order remained to manage the system, but it
was not widespread. Life returned to a more primitive existence. This is not
just a description of the practicalities of life, but also the point of view. It
seems that for a few centuries, we were out of both sides of our minds.
By
the middle of the Middle Ages (1000 – 1300 A.D.), the right side of the brain
began to engage. St. Francis of Assisi helped to reconnect the church to nature
and life of necessity. Society developed. There was a significant difference
between the lives of the commoner and elite whether that elite was royalty or
clergy. There was little to no functional middle class. There was a difference
between the laborer and skilled labor. Progress came from learning and
excelling at a trade. For the commoner, the world was simple. People didn’t
travel. There was a loss of the system of time. This world was as it was and as
it always will be.
The
world was fixed. A person understood his place in the world; his function. This
was his identity often even his name. There was no mobility in status, rank or
distance. There was no time, because there was no change. In the absence of
clocks and even calendars, only the holy days marked by the church provided a
sense of time changing. Time was marked by the eras of the Popes and the Kings.
It
is important to understand how the right brain made this time because the
space-less, timeless, identity-less experience was generated by the right brain
in the absence of a strong left brain. It was a different experience than a
left brain-centric world.
The
primary building of the Medieval Era was the Cathedral. They were created over
a few centuries by unnamed craftsmen. A sculptor or plasterer could spend his
whole life working in the cathedral. It was started before he was born and
would not be finished until long after his death. He was part of the continuum
of the cathedral. As a cog in the wheel he was nameless and without identity.
He was part for the mechanism of the cathedral which was a microcosm of the
cathedral of the universe.
The
Cathedral was the centerpiece of a community. Through its design and artwork it
told the stories of the bible and of their place in the system. It was a place
of awe, a spectacle. It was where people were instructed how to live in their
time. They experienced their part in the grand scheme of God’s universe.
The
Cathedral was the center of religious, civic and cultural life. However, some
forms of entertainment were not permitted. By 1000 A.D., the actors got
themselves kicked out of the church for asking questions and making fun of the
clergy. The theatrical entertainment climaxed with Passion Plays that moved
through the town being performed in wagons supported by the various craftsmen
guilds. This is a good example of a right brain way of thinking about the
telling of a story. Not one point of view or one location, but multiple views,
multiple locations and not always told in linear order.
There
is no surprise that the Medieval Era gave rise to the “cult of the” Virgin and
Courtly Love. The right brain respects and honors the matriarchy. As the right
brain flourished, there was a rise in the worship of the Virgin Mary, the
Christian Mother Goddess. At its best the balance of the right brain with the
left brain in Catholicism honors not only the Holy Trinity of God the Father,
Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit but also includes the Virgin Mother. The
inclusion of the feminine with the masculine patriarchy is essential for
balance and is a sign of balance between the hemispheres of the brain.
The
Middle and Late Medieval Ages featured the Crusades. For the first time in
centuries, peasants, knights and royals who had never traveled outside of their
hamlet were travelling across the continent to another part of the world. As
they traveled, they were exposed to ideas, experiences and sensations both
ancient and new. Travel develops the brain. They brought back different
thoughts and tastes than when they left. They returned home as different people
than when they left.
The
Crusades, the writing of regional languages, and the rise in literacy all
combined to increase the left brain. The writings and ideas of the ancients were
re-introduced. When they started reading Aristotle, Pythagoras and Archimedes,
a whole new vista opened up for them. In the latter half of the 15th
century Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press making
written material exponentially more available than prior to this invention.
This invention revolutionized the world. The resulting increase in literacy and
regional languages led to a sharp rise in the left brain.
When
the left brain rises in power, it honors specificity, logic, language over
image, reason over emotion. It also inspires are patriarchal leaning, an
overwhelming focus on correctness and backlash against the other and the
feminine.
As
the left brain rose to match the right, we achieved balance once again. The fruit
of that balance was called the Renaissance.
[More coming on Tuesday, Oct. 9]
[i] That’s a topic that could keep me
writing for days: How the Right Brained Roman Republic led/ gave way/lost to
the Left Brained Roman Empire. Another time.
[ii] When the Romans took over a city, they
were quick to build three specific buildings: The Amphitheatre (or Hippodrome)
for the horse/chariot races and wagering; the Coliseum for the blood sports,
and the Theaters for cultural instruction and comedy. These three different
venues for entertainment were important because they helped distract and
civilize the citizens. The races or athletic competitions fed the desire for competition.
Throughout the Empire, there were four teams designated by color to root for.
No matter where you were in the Empire you could root for the Greens. Think of
this as the sports entertainment that fills our TVs today. The Blood Sports of
the Gladiators offered the cathartic experience. This allowed for the release
of the basest and most violent instincts. This pacified and distracted the mob.
We currently get this from our movies and football. The Theater was built for
both tragic and comic plays. This entertainment taught the new populace what it
was to be living in their time as members of the Empire. It was also the place
that allowed a place to make fun of and ridicule the leaders.
[iii] I want to argue that Polytheism is
right brained and Monotheism is left brained. Though I’m not sure it is true.
The right brain seeing the big picture and open to all possibilities can get
behind the idea that there are many gods. Hell, the idea that everything is god
and we are all part of god sits well with the right brain. The feminine right
brain is also comfortable with an Earth Mother rather than a male Sky God. The
left brain can get very comfortable with the singular focus on one God. It also
grooves on the abstractness and ineffability of one God. Most one God believers
describe their God as male which fits for the masculine left brain. Also the
emphasis that Judaism, Christianity and Islam place on the written word and
their rejection of image is very left brain.
Remember
the right side of the brain loves new ideas and loves to communicate with
stories and images. The left brain loves to take an idea, lock it in, write it
down and make it into a rule. I believe Jesus started with a right brained-centric idea, then as Christianity developed, it got written down and cemented.
The idea shifted to the patriarchal and the dogmatic. Read the Gospel of Thomas
for an interesting contrast to the Epistles by Paul.
[iv] The current riots in the Middle East
are in part due to a video portraying the prophet Mohammad. This is a big no no
in Islam, even if the portrayal is deifying and not ridiculing. It’s all
blasphemy. It’s also very left brain-centric: words, not images. If Muslims
allowed images and portrayals of the Prophet, it would engage their right brains
and open them up to a more empirical view of the Mohammad, the interpretation
of his teachings, their leader and the rest of the world. Perhaps, the introduction
of the technology that brings an overwhelming onslaught sounds, images, and
interconnectedness is changing the brains of young Muslims faster than the
Imams can teach left brained ideology form the Koran. On the other or same
side, an ultra-orthodox Jewish rabbi has called for all of his follower to
destroy their IPhones: http://www.timesofisrael.com/burn-your-iphones-leading-rabbi-rules/]
[v] I clearly need to write the paper on
Religion and Brain Lateralization. It’s a huge topic.
[vi] Leonard Schlain in book, THE ALPHABET
VERSUS THE GODDESS, argues that this is the path of all religions. The
teacher/prophet/leader speaks an open, inclusive idea that is very right
brained. In time either he or his followers writes it down and it increasingly
becomes more fixed and dogmatic. One example of this is the Koran: early
Mohammad sounds rather free love compared with militaristic and dogmatic older
Mohammad.
[vii] There is an interesting idea to
pursue about the balance of the patriarchal external world and the matriarchal
internal home life that thrives in Jewish and most Mediterranean cultures. It
is an interesting balance.
