RAM vs. ROM
Consider the ideologue media commentator or politician who has a slogan for every issue and mischaracterizes virtually any opposing position. How can we understand the mentality of a person impervious to reason?
Let’s try an analogy from computers. Computers store information needed for calculation in random access memory (RAM). This storage is blank until filled with appropriate information–equivalent to that part of the brain used for thinking. In contrast, read-only memory (ROM) is permanent and contains fixed, reusable data–equivalent to the brain’s instinctive behavior. This may explain Rahm Emanuel plunging a knife into a table while screaming “Dead!” after the name of each political opponent.
In politics, for each issue, ROM is typically used. The ideologue need not program this part of memory; he simply reads a slogan or recalls an image when prompted. This explains why people talk past one another on political issues, ROM vs. ROM.
The trick to getting a real discussion, RAM vs. RAM, is to avoid activating the ROM. For instance, keeping an argument specific to an individual instead of a class of people can sidestep the ROM trap. Talking to a liberal about aid to “the poor” will get nowhere–of course the war on poverty must be fought, although it’s now called aid to working families. But in discussing a particular person–preferably known to the liberal–we may hear from the liberal how more money won’t help him–he needs to work harder, quit spending on frivolities, already sponges off his mom, etc. Personalization invokes RAM to weigh the details.
