A + B != C
Nicolas Humphrey writes a frustrating article in New Stalinist. He takes two important pieces of human nature, describes them properly and sympathetically, and then tries to jam them together. The combination doesn't work.

One important piece is the placebo effect, which has recently been legitimized by good research. It appears to be much more than symbolic; it appears to be an innate response to a transfer of a 'healing token'. Pill or tonic or prayer cloth or holy water or anointing or massage; the form doesn't matter as long as it's concretely sensed by tongue or skin.

The other important piece is our tendency to get irrationally aroused by words or visible symbols. This response shuts down thinking for a while, but after the arousal is done we tend to feel ashamed and we reassert rationality for a much longer time... until the next visual stimulus comes along. Plenty of historical evidence. See the Crusades or Beer Goggles or WW1 or Vietnam or Iraq.

These two phenomena are neither parallel nor opposite. They're just different. One is an improvement in mood and immunity when we feel a healing input, the other is a wild distortion of mood and rationality when we see and hear specific images and words.

Humphrey tries to use them together, in an uncertain direction:

Yet our species has moved on. For many people alive today, the specific dangers that humans evolved to fear are much less present. Living conditions have generally improved, interpersonal violence is on the wane, food supplies have become more reliable, disease less rampant, and so on. Of course we still do well, as the boy scouts' motto has it, to "be prepared", but the reality is that, for most of us, there has been a huge decrease in the threats to be prepared against.

In these new circumstances we should surely be much readier to let down our guard. If only our genetic tendencies could be revised so quickly! In reality, the settings of our internal governors have not had time to adapt. So we remain hostage, in mind and body, to ancient ingrained fears. Like the Japanese soldier, hiding in the forest 20 years after the second world war ended, we are stuck with obsolete superstitions and anxieties, waiting for the all-clear when there is really no longer much to fear.

Well, which is it? We should be unprepared or prepared? If you're advising us to let down our guard, it's terrible advice. Human nature doesn't change. Even in generally prosperous times, somebody is always trying to steal or kill or make war.

We do need to watch out for those counterfeit symbols, but I can't honestly give that advice. I was able to see the stupidity of the Vietnam flag-waving, and endured jail to stay out of it.... and then I fell right in line with the Iraq flag-waving in 2001. I'm ashamed now, but the shame won't prevent me from stupidly falling in line again at some point in the future.
  ¶ 5:11 AM