It was hard to understand at first, but now "House of Cards" is almost finished. There is always an emotion that is suppressed in the play. I can't explain it clearly, but the more I understand it at the end of the show, I also deepen the sentence to Nietzsche. Understanding of words. When Underwood’s wife, clair, knew that her partner (or her subordinates) was pregnant, the expression showed her inner entanglement, a new life was about to be born, and her life and her husband’s life were in Elapsed, she ran on his old rowing machine, but in this sport they did not enjoy the joy of exercise. Their expressions were solemn from beginning to end. Similarly, when they won one game of thrones, they didn’t seem to make a statement. The joy from the heart, everything seems to be under a big rock, what is this rock? ! This stone seems to be both pressure and motivation. During the process of looking at it, I have been looking for this mysterious stone. Of course, I finally understood the stone.
To make it clear that I understand Underwood and Clair and the rock in everyone's mind in the play, I have to say that I have seen a mistake and a bit funny and a bit dark psychological experiment recently. In 1953, two young scientists James Olds and Peter Milner from McGill University in Montreal tried to study a confusing little white mouse. Olds and Milner put an electrode deep into the mouse's brain and gave a slight electric shock to a certain area of the brain. Other scientists have verified that this area can make rats scared, and they will try to avoid anything that causes electric shocks in this area, but Olds and Milner’s mice are on the contrary, it keeps returning to the place where they were shocked. , The place where it once received electric shocks. It seems that it still wants to be shocked! ! ! Did other researchers make a mistake? Or is their guinea pig a masochist? ! In fact, Olds’ test skills are really poor. They inserted the wrong area. Instead, they discovered a completely new brain area, an area that is extremely complex, mysterious, incomprehensible, and full of dark power, but at the time they mistakenly thought they had found it. It created a "pleasure" center in the brain, and they named it that way at the time.
After Olds and Minar discovered the "pleasure" center in the mouse's brain, they began to prove how much pleasure stimulating this area would bring. They first fasted the mouse for 24 hours, and then placed it in the middle of a short tube with food at both ends of the tube. Normally, the mouse will run to the end of the pipe and start eating. But if the mouse receives an electric shock before that, it will stay where it is, motionless. Compared with a guaranteed food, it is more willing to wait for a possible electric shock.
In order to further prove the effect of the electric shock in this area, Olds hypothesized that if self-torture can stimulate this brain area, to what extent can the mice endure the torture? So he gave the mouse the control to be able to shock the mouse, and designed a control rod. As long as the control rod is pressed, it will give the electric shock to this area. After the mouse learns this skill, it will stimulate itself. Then, Olds put the control rods on both ends of a power grid, and each time the mouse can only get one electric shock from one control rod (that is, it cannot press the control rod continuously to get an electric shock, it must go to another part of the power grid. Press the other lever with one end), the mice are happy to run around on the grid until their scorched paws can no longer run. Olds is even more convinced that there is only one thing that can produce such behavior, and that is the feeling of bliss.
Are Olds and Milner’s guinea pigs really unwilling to stop because they feel so good? Are there other possibilities? Or is stimulating this area just the brain giving them the promise of wonderful things happening? In fact, neuroscientists later discovered that what Olds and Milner discovered back then was not a pleasure center, but a "reward" system. The area they stimulate is part of the most primitive power system of the brain. This system gradually evolves, driving us to take action and consume physical energy. The white mice kept running around in the corners when they were agitated for the first time. The reason why they would rather give up food or even burn their paws to stimulate themselves is because whenever this area is stimulated, the brain tells them to "come again." Once! This time it will make you feel good! "Every time the stimulus makes the mouse seek more stimulus, the stimulus itself does not bring satisfaction.
How does the reward system force us to take actions similar to coercion? When the brain finds an opportunity for a reward, it releases the dopamine neurotransmitter. Dopamine tells other parts of the brain what they need to pay attention to and how to make our expectation of reward succeed. A lot of dopamine does not produce a feeling of happiness, that feeling is more like an incentive.
In 2001, Stanford neuroscientist Brian Knudsen published a decisive experimental report, proving that dopamine can prompt people to expect rewards, but they cannot feel the joy of rewards. Knudsen scanned the brains of the subjects in the study and asked them to expect to win money when they saw a certain symbol on the screen. If they want to win money, they have to press a button in order to get a winning reward. As soon as this symbol appears, the "reward center" that releases dopamine in the human brain will react, and the subject will press the button and get their reward. But when the subject really won the money, this area of the brain quieted down instead. Another area of the brain produces the pleasure of winning. Knudsen proved that dopamine controls action, not happiness. The promise of rewards ensures that the subjects successfully act and receive rewards. When the reward system is active, they feel expectation and desire, not happiness.
That’s the end of the scientific experiment. Let’s go back to "House of Cards". Anything we think will make us happy will stimulate the reward system, such as mouth-watering food, the aroma of coffee, and the half-price sign of the store. , There are ads that promise to make you younger and more attractive. Of course, the darkest charm is the rewards and promises after gaining power. Therefore, Underwood constantly reminds himself to be sober, alert, and energetic, constantly lobbying, persuading, and even threatening others. , In intrigue, In the process of almost frantically pursuing power, Underwood did not directly feel happiness, but the torment of the desire for power (think of the little white mouse whose scorched paws have to press the control lever). This is "Yes." Desire is much more loving than the object of desire." Power is an aphrodisiac, which is not bad at all. It only stimulates your desires, and does not directly give you happiness! ! ! What really makes us addicted is not the power itself but the desire for power. People who play power games often feel lonely when they are in power. Think about "Hongmen Banquet" (of course Hongmen Banquet is not a good movie), when Liming played Liu Bang The feeling of loneliness after the power was held, when I finally lay on the bed and was almost finished, I thought what he wanted to say must be "This is not what I want".
The insight into this point also appears in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The ring is not actually a symbol of powerful strength and power. It is more like a symbol of power evokes people's infinite desires. How many people do it for this ring? After the death of Huangquan, how many people are still rushing for this ring. In the struggle for this ring, what people experience is not direct love and happiness, but greed, desire, and extreme desire for control. Is there a chance to escape the slavery of power and desire to us? I think there is still a chance. When Clair learns that her subordinate is pregnant, her lonely expression tells us that she is shaken. The love for children is the thing that reminds us of the deepest connection with ourselves. Clair has no children yet. In the end, she seemed to consult the doctor on various matters concerning childbirth. I think in the process, she would realize that her desire for power forced her behavior, and all the stress and anxiety were brought about by it. See how to interpret these in the next season.
Underwood, I think there is no hope. He has severely closed his heart. He has a cruel heart. From the very beginning, he venomously killed injured pet dogs. Of course, most cruel people don't like children. Why? The child may evoke the soft part of him (innocent him when he was a child), and the soft part is synonymous with weak and incompetent among the cruel, weak and incompetent, don’t play the game of power, otherwise, how could you cruelly kill the two children? The young councillor Russell? Why do you have the heart to fire employees who are parents of such children? Therefore, Underwood directly said in the play that he doesn't like children, and neither did he and Clair have children. Children are their fetters on their journey to power? No, children can best evoke their softness, or the weakness in their eyes. In short, Underwood directly succumbed to the call of his desire for power. He was actually very tired. At least I think so in front of the screen. Although the final goal seems to have been achieved, it is only at the last moment to pass the risk. The hole cards are almost seen through by the same powerful opponent who has a strong desire for power, but he likes it (mostly like the poor guinea pig in that experiment).
Are there any cute people in the play? Yes! Clair's lover Adam, the photographer, but he has very few scenes, just knowing that he is not the same as Underwood and Clair.
Finally, let's take a look at a classic poster of "House of Cards", a bloody "V" victory sign, is this really the case? How like the paw of that little white mouse that was scorched by the power grid! ! !
Note: Compared with the ancient power, the mobile phones and social networks of modern life are the masters of activating our reward system. We swipe Weibo over and over again, and constantly click to open all kinds of pages. Do we really feel happy? No, we Clicking the mouse is like the mouse in the cage wants to feel the electric shock again. We pursue the elusive rewards until we finally get the satisfaction we imagined. Mobile phones and the Internet may unintentionally activate our reward system, but the designers of electronic games and gambling consciously control our reward system to get us hooked. "Upgrade" and "winning" may appear at any time, and windfalls are likely to appear in the next bet. This is the real reason why people become addicted to games and gambling.
Of course, we cannot directly say that the reward system or dopamine is an "evil thing". It has a dark side of temptation, but without basic desires, we cannot be motivated to act (experiments may prove that depression is caused by a lack of dopamine. of). It is not good or bad, what matters is which direction it will take us, and whether we are wise enough to know when to listen to the voice of desire.
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