I have a suspicion that the politicians' revival of the old behaviourist ideas and techniques will be helped and reinforced by a powerful ally - the machines we have built. The computers.
So here is one of my theories on happiness: we cannot know if we have lived a truly happy life until the very end. This view of life and death was reinforced by my close witnessing of the buildup to the death of Philip Gould. Philip was without doubt my closest friend in politics. When he died, I felt like I had lost a limb.
Although our body language governs the way other people perceive us, our body language also governs how we perceive ourselves and how those perceptions become reinforced through our own behavior, our interactions, and even our physiology.
The thematically related 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Brokeback Mountain' reinforced the narrative that gays like Mr. Shepard are regularly isolated for cruel and unusual attacks.
For free-speech principles to be reinforced and free-market ideas to win the day, more people are going to have to stand up and be heard.
Behavior used to be reinforced by great deprivation; if people weren't hungry, they wouldn't work. Now we are committed to feeding people whether they work or not. Nor is money as great a reinforcer as it once was. People no longer work for punitive reasons, yet our culture offers no new satisfactions.
Yoga has reinforced and grounded my own spiritual beliefs.
The Pew Biomedical Scholars are a synergistic community whose connections are reinforced over the years.
Many differences are rooted in biology and reinforced through culture, so it's important to acknowledge that. Because if you say men and women are the same and if male behaviour is the norm, and women are always expected to act like men, we will never be as good at being men as men are.
I know that I'm often perceived as this odd guy who's a bit out there, and I've probably, once in a while, reinforced that image, but I'm really not that person, and, in a way, I want even less so to be seen like that.
