The Sucker Punch: Is it a learned behavior or innate?

"Use your heart for love but your head for everything else." - Capt Disillusion

Captain Disillusion debunks the popular penguin video with his thorough knowledge of video technique. But he also uses it as a prooftext or exemplar. That is, he holds it up as a lesson for moral and informed behavior. We all have a natural desire to believe hokum, especially if it's thrilling, funny, or satisfies our deep urge to believe in things that make life simpler, even if we know better.  Lord knows, there's plenty of hokum coming our way on the Web, from TV, from the media machinery. It's a moral obligation, as the ancients knew, to resist the impulse to give our precious credence and belief to flummery and demagoguery. Knowledge is power, and, as Spiderman says, with power comes responsibility.  Or to put it as Capt. D does, "Looking at the world in an objective and empirical way is the key to a healthy and well-balanced life." It is also the cornerstone of civilzation, I would add. 

March of the Penguins

If you give you start believing in the unbelievable, your passions can be aroused. It's fun to be aroused but it's dangerous. Once the lizard brain takes over, you can be led into giving up your individual grip on what's real and becoming part of the mob. First you'll burn books for the challenging ideas they hold, and then, as the Holocaust teaches us, you'll start burning people.

You saw "March of the Penguins."  Beautiful, courageous, affectionate, self-sacrificing parents ... and given to freezing their asses off in huge, pathetic mobs.

We're not penguins. That's the point.