Think and Emote?

Can one think and emote at the same time? In my youth I was instructed by a teacher: “You cannot think and emote at the same time”. Until recently I gave that instruction little thought, but prompted by recent terrorist acts and inflammatory political speeches, I have reviewed my own past and the changing social attitudes I have witnessed in my lifetime. My teacher’s separation of emotion and thought as coincidentally incompatible, have many examples in my own life. They have impacted the full expression of my potential and I am ashamed of them. History too has many examples of which we should not be proud, and have limited the potential of the human race. Passion has many faces, including religious fervor, physical attractions, hate, and extreme dedications to narrow causes. Being caught up in one or more of these chemically induced states is not only seductive and directive, it overrides a portion of one’s thought processes. Being filled with religious fervor makes one receptive to directives offered by those capable of arousing compelling emotions. It is not thought that is displaced by emotion, but reason. Emotions narrow one’s perspectives, pushing reasonable evaluations made using wider world views aside. Being convinced emotionally that non Christians were less than human allowed the Crusaders to slaughter thousands with differing perspectives without compunction. The Crusaders had their focus narrowed by repeated emotionally intense instructions and rituals and were freed from a sense of guilt and disgust for their actions by having their actions absolved, in advance, through ingrained emotionally misdirected responses numbing them to the carnage they caused. Humans have several susceptible sensitive areas where emotions, when evoked, can override reason. Sex is the most obvious, followed closely by tribal and survival responses. In early humans reason played a lesser role in both individual responses and societal arrangements. Impulse, instinct and emotions acted as primary guides for survival. As societal arrangements became more complex more protective and more productive, reason became more important and began covering innate emotional survival instincts with a thin veneer of constructed societal norms. All of us have these susceptible, thin applied areas of self control in our response repertoire. They are evolved attributes that have brought us successfully through a long period of conversion from animal instincts to our present state. The societal veneer that directs our behavior today, however, is learned. It is implanted after birth and must be instilled in every individual if that individual is to successfully integrate into society. We are born with only a few tribal / family behavior and compassionate instinctive responses. The rest must be taught by example and instruction. When we fail to instill this veneer of societal integration and fail to reinforce it with wide word views and logic, strong enough to resist emotional calls for misdirected behavior, we create displaced individuals and become susceptible to despots. A sense of history, a basic understanding of geography, a basic understanding of government and societal organizations, an appreciation of language, a basic view of comparative religions, a basic understanding of economics, and a basic understanding of science and technology are necessary prerequisites for reason to resist subversive appeals to our primitive emotions. Unfortunately, ideologies, polite exclusions and disclaimers have purged curriculums in private, parochial and public schools of these basics and made societies, vulnerable to the seductive call of narcissistic megalomaniacs. By dissolving the thin layer of protective logic with caustic rhetoric these despots are able to tap into our primitive emotions and alter our individual prime directives. “Fear your government”, “Hate the Jews”, “All Muslims are terrorists”, “Only Christians are moral and can be trusted”, and many other appeals are made chipping away at the thin veneer of logic and understanding that sustains our modern global civilization. Is it possible to think and emote at the same time? It depends! It is a matter of choosing between, ancient beliefs or discovery and education, between reason and peace or emotion and confrontation. Do you want to return to the 15th century’s religious conflicts, or struggle to support a modern civilization? Compassion and love are emotions we value, but they will only survive if we are not afraid to face truths beyond dogma, and allow reason to prevail. You can give your children a gun and teach them how to use it, or you can give them a sense of self worth and teach them how to reason.