Thinking, Or The Lack Thereof
February 23, 2009 - Awhile back I arrived at work to overhear the tail end of, what I can only describe as, a verbal sparring match. Since I didn’t hear the opening rounds, I cannot say what started it, but it was definitely regarding Barack Obama. The person, who obviously disliked Obama, obviously was in control and was maintaining a level head, if you ask me, he was enjoying the whole thing. On the other hand, the young woman who was trying to defend Obama was close to hysterics.
It was nice to see someone else on the firing line besides me, so I went in and got my morning cup of coffee. However, that incident kept popping back into my head, and I couldn’t figure out why, until now.
It wasn’t what was being said by these two that kept my thoughts returning to their conversation, it was the manner in which they were arguing. The man was obviously basing his side of the argument on facts, while the young woman was running purely on emotions.
In 1994, neurobiologists Damasio, Grabowski, Frank, Galaburda & Damasio, after studying the skull of a railroad worker whose skull had been pierced by an iron rod, decided that the brain is divided into two segments, with the left side of the brain governing logic, while the right governs emotions.
I don’t understand neurology, so I don’t know how much validity there is to that, but I have noticed that there seems to be a disconnect, or possibly a short circuit, in a good portion of peoples brains that is causing them to base many of their decisions solely upon emotional, or as many people like to say, knee jerk reactions.
Back before Obama was elected I received a lot of criticism from friends and co-workers when I wrote harshly about the actions of the Bush administration. Now when I write about Obama, I get the same response, just from different people. I am most frequently told to ‘get over it, your candidate lost.’
It just seems to me that people are too emotionally attached to a particular political party, or candidate, and are not reasoning things out. I don’t care who is in office, if they are not governing according to the Constitution.
It is much like someone who is a member of a particular religious sect, and a clergyman, of their faith, is caught molesting young children. Would these same people condone the clergyman’s actions just because they are of the same faith? I don’t think so. God’s law is universal and should be the standard by which all His followers are held accountable to.
The same goes for politics. The Constitution is the law that all elected officials should be held accountable to. It matters not to me if they be Republican, or Democrat, if they violate the Constitution, they will be on the receiving end of my tirades.
That gets back to my point, that people are basing their political decisions more on emotion, than logic. I don’t know if that is something that can be attributed to our schools, for not teaching people to think, or if it is something caused by the foods we eat, or the lifestyles we live, but it is true nonetheless.
The decision making process is a cognitive process in which the outcome is a choice between certain alternatives. When we make a decision logically, we examine facts, weighing them against what we know to be true.
However, when we make a decision based purely upon emotions, it is most often in response to some stimuli, and is accomplished very quickly. Emotionally based decisions often completely override logic, therefore it is often hard to understand why someone made their decision, especially when the facts conclusively prove their decision to be faulty.
Oscar Wilde once said, “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” With the majority of the people in this country making their decisions based more upon emotions, that logic, it appears that not too many people are thinking for themselves.
We are currently in the midst of a major financial crisis, yet one hundred years ago our nation did not have an income tax, we did not have Social Security taxes, we did not have a Federal Reserve Bank, and we were the leaders in the world in manufacturing. Our government instituted all those taxes, regulated business, gave tax breaks, and incentives to corporations, all of which are to blame for the economic mess we are in. Yet everyone expects our government to fix this mess, when it is they who created it.
Less than one hundred years ago our nation was, for the most part, populated by church going people who upheld the Lords laws as contained in Scripture. Television shows were, although sometimes silly, still wholesome and free of vulgarity and perversion.
Now we have churches that condone same sex marriages, our television shows are filled with filth, and our crime rates are embarrassing, and our children have no moral guidance to direct their lives.
So, when I write something, I am asking people to put aside their feelings, and read what I say, then examine these things against the facts. If I am proven wrong, fine, just as long as people examine the facts, and not base their opinions upon their emotional ties to a particular candidate, political party, or belief system. That is all I ask.
Otherwise, in response to their emotionally based decisions, I can only quote Albert Einstein, who said, “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.”
It appears that you just can’t fix stupid.
~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal
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