The little red rubber guy, his head filled with flour, pleads
with us to be reasonable. He is worried. He wants us to be open to argument. He
is hoping we are not fanatics of some irrational cult. He hopes we are not fascists,
zealots, anarchists, bigots or surrealists. He hopes we are not fuelled by emotions
as women are supposed to be.
When we are passionate, loyal, in love, mad, patriotic,
poetic, intuitive, filled with hatred or remorse, our heart rules our head and
we make irrational decisions. Sometimes those decisions turn out to be the same
as the ones we would have made by applying rationality. Sometimes we rationalise
intuitive decisions after we have made them. Sometimes we act without seeming
to make a decision at all.
Neuroscience tells us that every thought we have has an emotional
content. It’s impossible to add two numbers together without involving an
emotional component. So perhaps the little red rubber guy is being
unreasonable.
No comments:
Post a Comment