The great struggle of our age is to re-assert our humanity against those institutions that define and treat us as simple automatons. Freudian “Drive-Reduction Theory” attempted to minimize all life into simplistic, mechanical terms. B. F. Skinner went so far as to claim that ALL behavior results from external reinforcement: Reward “good” behavior and punish “bad” behavior, and humans can be conditioned for the better. Utopia, therefore, is just a few conditioning sessions away …
Problem is, living things are inherently complex. Life refuses to be contained within formulas. So when behavioral scientists observed subjects ignoring rewards and spontaneously exploring and experimenting, they had to admit this impulse was internal, rather than external, as Skinner had assumed. A new term arose to describe this activity, as this refreshing article from Medium reports:
Intrinsic motivation refers to the spontaneous tendency “to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise one’s capacity, to explore, and to learn” (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p.70).
Exercise, games, travel, reading, and even watching TV all satisfy the seeking system to varying levels of effortful operation. On one side of the spectrum someone could climb Mount Everest, and on the other they could browse Netflix. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp defines this exploratory behaviour as being driven by the organisms innate seeking system. To reiterate, the anomaly behind seeking is that it provides seemingly very little utilitarian value — it does not fulfil some physiological needs deficit, but we do it anyway. We create our own value from within. Also fascinating, we now know that organisms behave in intrinsically motivated ways even when they are lacking ‘basic’ needs such as food, water, or shelter. How many times have you seen a homeless person reading a book? Do you think they’re practising for a job interview? No, they’re seeking.
The drive to seek, to explore, and experience new things is what attracts us to fantasy. We revolt against the dreary uniformity of globalism by seeking out realms of imagination. That’s why science fiction and fantasy fuel so much popular culture these days. The fantastic is that place where we can once again experience wonder.
And ghost stories! Splendid post!
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janowrite,
Oh, yes, definitely ghost stories!
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I absolutely agree – this world needs people who live passionately in an enchanted reality!
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Ravensare,
Agreed. And that’s where writers come in.
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A favorite genre of mine is Magical Realism – Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a Danish writer Peter Høgh. Truth comes out through the magical and the mysterious.
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Had to log in first…
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Oh funny, my comment was put under anonymous but it is I:)
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This is a wonderful and compelling post!
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Thank you, sir! That means a great deal coming from you.
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You are very welcome.
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One of the defining characteristics of mammals is our inherent curiosity. Trying to deny that tends to not end well.
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kamas716,
It’s a valuable survival tool.
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Reblogged this on charles french words reading and writing and commented:
This is an excellent post on the importance of fantasy!
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Bingo, bingo, bingo. (I crush my ink-tube down on my array of numerated cards and cry BINGO).
> We create our own value from within
And that, that stretches the gap from all lifeforms before us. We, our minds, crave new, crave novel, crave the unknown — so much that we create it ourselves, within ourselves!
Hello, nice to meet you. Have a grapefruit and maybe a box of chocolates. And oh, bytheway, could we live in pressurized lavatubes beneath the moon’s surface?
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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Perfectly said, and absolutely true. And, that’s why I read aloud to children. I keep that fantasy alive. Thank you, Mike.
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I’ve always felt we need fantasy to help us endure the insanity of reality.
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GP Cox,
I couldn’t agree more!
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Thank Goodness for Fantasy. Great post Mike.
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K.D. Dowdall,
Yes, and thank you for the kind words.
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Well said Mike!
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I often find that it’s not about what fantasies and stories you find, but rather what fantasies and stories find you.
It’s up to you to do with them what you will when they come.
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nascentederren,
I like that!
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It’s always nicer to have the story tell you what it is than try to force it somewhere else.
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Reblogged this on alkaplan and commented:
So true.
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This is exactly why I read and write fantasy. Reality sometimes become a tad too real.
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You hit it head on. Fantasy helps us to escape from the troubles of the real world. The world can be a terrible place and fantasy and science fiction among other writings can release us from that.
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You explain exactly why I love fantasy. Creating and exploring fantastical worlds may not be necessary for basic life, but it is part of how we thrive.
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Has to be my favourite genre.
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Excellent post, Mike! 🙂
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” B. F. Skinner went so far as to claim that ALL behavior results from external reinforcement”
He spoke that claim only because he was programmed to do so.
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John,
Ha! And he would’ve probably agreed!
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And what value would such “agreement” have? If a parrot makes a noise that sounds like our word for “yes” when it gets a cracker, the parrot is not agreeing to anything: it is making a programmed response.
Thus Skinner himself saws off the branch on which he stands.
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My favorite post of the day. 🙂
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