But what is bizarre is that somehow, this big, slushy, organic web of interconnections is what we call “me.” Along with the many illusions of the human brain, it’s all of our hopes, dreams, aspirations, our agony, and our ecstasies, all contained together in this little blob.

Essentially this most complicated system runs entirely under the hood of our conscious awareness, totally invisible to us. In fact, if it weren’t for the study of the brain, we wouldn’t even have any reason to suspect the existence of the electrical signals or impulses behind the simplest things we do from making our morning coffee or recognizing an old friend to the more complicated stuff like judging a character or driving a car.

Here’s the Interesting Part About the Illusions of the Human Brain

In one of the studies, pictures of women who exhibited dilated pupils were uniformly rated as more appealing by men than the ones with narrower pupils. None of those men had consciously noted the difference in the pupil’s size, nor did they know that larger pupils were a sign of biological readiness for sexual intimacy in women. But their gooey gray matter knew this and whoop, here they were, making decisions totally unaware of what’s influencing their behavior. All masked under the great illusions of the human brain.

Illusions of the Human Brain – The Unconscious

Since everything we do runs under the hood, this leads to the idea of the unconscious brain. The part of us that flickers to life at the first light of the day, the conscious mind, is like a stockpile cabin on a trans-Atlantic ship assuming credit for the whole journey. Little does it know about the colossal engineering that’s underneath.

It appears as though our unconscious mind tremendously influences all our decisions and choices made in life. As an example, if your parents had named you Dennis or Denise, your likelihood of becoming a dentist would be statistically higher. Psychologists refer to this as “implicit egotism,” which means we like things that remind us of ourselves. As a matter of fact, as arbitrary as it may sound, we also tend to like people better if they share our birthday!

We humans seem to continually construct sketchy narratives of the past and fool ourselves into believing that it’s true. As Carl Jung put it, “in each of us there is another whom we do not know,” or as Pink Floyd said, “there’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.”

Here’s another example of a study that psychologists call the “Halo effect.” If you find a baseball pitcher to be good looking or athletic, you are more likely to rank him better at pitching too. If you feel a player is unsightly or ugly, you will most likely devalue his athletic ability. The statement “Hitler loves dogs, and little children” will always sound controversial no matter how often you hear it. Any element of kindness in someone so vicious ruptures the probability constructed by the halo effect.

What’s the Fetch?

If there’s so much going on under our hoods, it makes us wonder then, what our responsibility is to the world or the social system. Well, along with a lot of ideas such as “tailored education” and “tailored social policies,” there have also been considerations on reevaluating our ways of dealing with criminals through adapting the concept of “rational sentencing,” with addicts through “customized rehabilitation” and employees via “realistic incentive structuring.”

So, Are We Really Who We Think We Are?

Whether we have free will or not, remains a hotly debated topic even today, but what is very clear is that the unconscious mind is the one that’s in charge, and the conscious bit on top is not the one driving the boat. We are tied to our biology, and free will seems to be a very small player behind the wheel.

This idea may be a little scary for a lot of us. Nonetheless, we need to remind ourselves that when humankind discovered other planets and felt dethroned from the position of being center of the universe, we also saw the upside – the whole world was so much grander and more wondrous than we thought. The same thing is happening today in cognitive science; we are sailing into this inner cosmos of alien life forms and are realizing that it’s so much grander and wondrous than we could have ever imagined!

But if we’re talking takeaways from Lana Del Rey, we should talk about her consistency. While she could have easily backed away or revamped her personality, Lana Del Rey stood true to her characteristics. She maintains and grows her style in music and attaches visuals and themes that define her more concretely as an artist.

When it comes to her albums, they’ve been critiqued for glorifying abuse and the general idea that women are weak-minded and feeble. However, she defended her music and lyrics with the stance that these songs were her catharsis and therapy. They were her ways to express herself authentically, share her experiences, and consequently heal from them.

So what went wrong on the evening of 21st May when Lana released a typed out rant of being critiqued for singing about topics that don’t necessarily empower women in the mainstream sense? Let’s get into it.

So, let’s have a conversation about 4 takeaways from Lana Del Rey’s Instagram rant.

What most fans and non-fans had the biggest problem with were the artists she mentioned in comparison. She took the names of louder, more aggressive, and sexual women. If we’re talking takeaways from Lana Del Rey, this is surely worth a mention.

Create, don’t compare

She is of the opinion that their music is about “ being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating, etc.” She then spoke about her stance, saying: “Can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money — or whatever I want.”

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Now, let’s examine this, shall we? In the Lana Del Rey rant, she conveniently brings up mostly black artists and uses grotesque and demeaning words to describe their music while sugar-coating her own style, calling it “being embodied” and “feeling beautiful.” This double standard gives us a peek into some inherent disgust or hostility that she may have towards these artists, or maybe she was having a rough day.

Bad intentions or not – the wording seems off! And the wording is something you need to pay close attention to when you have millions of fans watching. One of the most helpful takeaways from Lana Del Rey.

Glamorizing abuse – where do we draw the line?

If you’ve heard any of Lana’s songs, you probably know that the messaging is about being submissive, passive, and “delicate” as she calls it. Up to this point, it doesn’t ring any alarms.

But when your music is excessively about letting someone walk all over you, treat you wrong and physically/emotionally abuse you. There is some necessary caution to be taken, especially when your fans are young girls who will internalize your narrative. Which is what makes it one of the most imporant takeaways from Lana Del Rey.

Image source: Flickr

Yes, what we create is meant to be cathartic and healing. But there isn’t any rule that says you have to put it out there if you’ve created something. Music can be used as therapy and left on your computer, just for you.

Her struggles have helped a lot of women know that they’re not alone. But there has to be a growth curve for the people looking up to her. Seeing that she has overcome her destructive patterns helps them learn from it too.

Don’t perpetuate the victim narrative

Lana’s concerns about the more “delicate” woman excluded from the feminist movement are food for thought. However, her comparisons to other powerful women were the leading cause of concern. As she brought their music down with detrimental words, she fails to realize that these women have been through hell to be where they are today.

Image source: Flickr

Many of these women have faced many trials, tribulations, and criticisms of their own to reach number one. Comparing herself to these women forces a victim narrative on the reader.

As if she has had it worse than them and continues to do so. While it’s understandable that you need contrast for clarity, it also uplifts these other women while presenting your perspective. If we’re talking takeaways from Lana Del Rey, this is worth noting.

She is not as marginalized as she thinks she is

Lana Del Rey’s argument revolves around the fact that she has “paved the way” for artists to talk freely about what they’re going through, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, and Amy Winehouse are some examples of artists who have chosen to express more taboo themes. And they have been heavily critiqued for it.

Image source: Flickr

While noting takeaways from Lana Del Rey, we should note that being a white, straight woman in America indicates that you are in the majority and that more opportunities come your way. But in her post, she writes as though women of her kind have been suppressed in the music industry.

Although the backlash she receives for authentically expressing herself is unnecessary, she doesn’t have enough of it to go on an Instagram rampage that will obviously raise a few eyebrows.

So, reasonable or racist? Where do you stand on this?
The Lana Del Rey rant has taught us a lot but she definitely not be tagged as a racist. Because in her statement that followed, she explains that she is actually good friends with most of these artists. This doesn’t excuse her words, but they were not extreme enough to be interpreted as racist. And reasonable? Well, she’s not the latter either.

The backlash she faces is a cause for concern, but her statement could have been worded in a more empathetic and positive manner to get her message across without hurting the sentiments of many. Another one of the most important takeaways from Lana Del Rey – don’t do that.

When it’s 2020, and you have 16 million followers to hold you accountable, you have to watch your words and your intentions. Fame is a double-edged sword, and Lana Del Rey might be learning that the hard way.

Kids Being uncontrollable can lead to stunning incidents, and the following is an example of a real such story of how an exuberant kindergartener took his impatience to another level of dangerous adventure. He stealthily made taking out the family car on roads, following an argument with his mom for his aspiration to get a Lamborghini.

So this five-year-old kid named Adrian, who lives in Utah State situated in the western United States, at the Ogden area, was having arguments with his mom, demanding a Lamborghini. The case couldn’t make his parents fulfill his demand because, of course! Lamborghini is a big deal to be fallen for just because a kid is demanding it. So his mom refused to get him a Lamborghini.

Being severely tenacious to his aspiration, this naughty kid then rebelled and decided to take up the matter of pursuing this bizarre dream in his own hands thus waiting for the right opportunity which arrived on 5th of May, 2020 when his parents had gone to work.

They had left him in care of his elder sister Sydney Flores. 16 yo Sydney had fallen for a nap when Adrian took the keys of the SUV owned by parents and got into it, driving it out from his home for a multi-state journey towards California.

In the Five minutes drive from his home in Ogden to Freeway Interstate 15 at Utah State, The patrolling authority of the state named Utah Highway Patrol saw this SUV weaving on the lane, at a speed of 50Km/hr. They followed it up and pulled over by initiating a traffic stop which the driver obeyed.

Conceiving based on what it seemed, the patrolmen thought that it was some impaired man driving the car. Thus they followed and found that it was a kid sitting inside on the front edge of the seat and the feet positioned on brake pedals.

Naughty 5-year old goes frenzy, stopped and interrogated by troops

Undertaking a child-friendly interrogation with him the trooper Rick Morgan with a professional, meticulous approach, got to learn a big chunk of matter from the kid’s perspective.

He told the troopers all that he could, From his arguments with mom to the decision of driving a car for a multi-state journey towards California to buy a Lamborghini. However, the troopers found that he was carrying 3$ in his pocket which he took from his piggy bank to buy Lamborghini, a luxurious sports vehicle whose lowest-priced models begin from 200k $.

Utah Highway Patrol in a tweet said “One of our Troopers in Weber Co. initiated a traffic stop on what he thought was an impaired driver. It turns out it was this young man, age 5, somehow made his way up onto the freeway in his parents’ car. Made it from 17th and Lincoln in Ogden down to the 25th St off-ramp SB I-15.”

In the next tweet, they said “His story is that he left home after an argument with Mom, in which she told him she would not buy him a Lamborghini. He decided he’d take the car and go to California to buy one himself. He might have been short on the purchase amount, as he only had 3 dollars in his wallet.”

Utah Highway Patrol tweeted in series about the incident. Incident was recorded on dashboard cam and radio and shared by the authority with media and social media too.

Though the news went viral and on social media too, there were diverse responses of people to the case. Some wanted or expected severe punishment to the kid and parents, whereas some were surprised, confounded and shocked. Some are astonished comparing this dangerous adventure of the kid with the experiences and mischievous deeds they did in childhood. Some were lambasting his family online and in society even.

Adrian’s mother Sydney, who’s Adrian’s elder sister thought he was kidnapped and she called her mom who was infuriated and worried at the same time learning this about her son’s misdeed. The family stated that none of them encouraged him ever to drive a car except getting him a battery-powered toy truck on which he used to play with by riding up and down on sidewalks when he was two years old by age. Who knew it could play a part in shaping his aspiration?! Well!

The troopers took the case to the higher authorities and court. However, it went the other way round the court ruled that no charges implemented on his parents at all. This 5-year old goes frenzy and looks unstoppable.

Severe advisories have been given to the family though by the authorities to which his family promised to obey. They’re now keeping the car keys safely away from Adrian.
People are amazed by his exuberance and his power to pursue ambition too. There are multiple responses of people, including the advocacies saying that Adrian deserves a Lamborghini ride, while others were offering him the much-deserved ride on Lamborghini. Many believe that the 5-year old goes frenzy over small chores and it guilty and liable for punishment.

Family of Adrian was traumatized by what he did and their condemnation in society. His family said that he knows he was wrong. Adrian too stayed quiet and sad after the incident. Still, the moment of happiness arrived next day when a kindhearted entrepreneur from Utah State named Jeremy Neves who was following the news of Adrian, came to his home with a black Lamborghini offering him and his family a ride. He and his family enjoyed the trip being thankful to Jeremy and Adrian was more than just happy for getting to be on Lamborghini.

Jeremy though stood by the belief of discipline required in Adrian’s life, and he also admired his attitude of will and determination towards the dream. Jeremy too is a dad to one kindergartner child who’s younger to Adrian. Jeremy believes in sharing his privileges with unprivileged people. It provides him with happiness.

On his valid Facebook account, Jeremy Neves wrote a post making it public. He wrote about how kids grow up and chase their dreams; it’s essential to acknowledge their progress and give them the freedom of whatever they want to achieve in life.

Most media blogs have condemned the 5-year old goes frenzy actions, however, he also needs to duly understand this kindergartner state of mind. He said he wanted to reward the kid for his encouraging habits and himself approaching the troops for whatever he did. Jeremy embarked that he chooses to include education and encouragement for the excellent qualities and not just bad choices that one makes.

For Adrian, this story had a happy ending after getting arise on Lamborghini. Kids are kids, and some say that age is just a number. Meanwhile, you guys might be interested to check out our post on 6 classic quarantine characters.