One of the main reasons that humans can think and act logically is that we have a well-developed frontal lobe in our brains, where most human logical thought takes place. We also have a well-developed system that allows us to communicate our thoughts to others, whether or not those thoughts are grounded in logic or in emotion or in a combination of both. Some might think that system is the internet with its various platforms for social media, but in reality, there are many elements of the human brain that enable us to take our logical (and sometimes illogical) thoughts and communicate them to others in our species.
So, why am I writing on the topic of logic and reason today? In part, because the emotional side of my brain wants to set off an alarm that we are, as a species, devolving into a species that acts too often emotionally and illogically in response to events that stoke our fears. Our political parties are organized around a very basic premise: you have more to fear (and lose) if the other party gets into power than if our party gets into power. And why do parties do this? Because, as any power-seeking group will tell you, fear is much easier to sell than logic, and when fear is sold, it is very hard to dislodge with a logical appeal a conviction that someone or some group of people are trying to harm you. Such a conviction can only be overcome by a stronger appeal to fear.
And it is not just political parties that realize that emotional appeals are stronger than logical ones. Look at any advertisement. Do you want to buy the copper lager that Charlize Theron is selling because it is a logical purchase, or are you responding with a emotional response -- whether that is fear or a desire to be like (or with) Ms. Theron -- if you want to buy that beer after watching that ad. If you don't buy that that particular ad is trying to sell you by interacting with the emotional side of your brain, how about the anti-smoking ads where the spokeswoman talks to you through her tracheotomy that, presumably, is the result of throat cancer caused by smoking. There are many logical reasons not to smoke, but none are as compelling to me as the emotional response that I get when I see that ad -- I don't want to be like her, therefore I won't smoke, or I will try to quit smoking now if I am already smoking. We are creatures that are far more easily persuaded to act through the emotional parts of our brains than with the logical elements of that organ.
So if you buy my basic premise -- we have become a species that no longer values a logical argument alone and we need an appeal to our emotions to cause us to take an action that may or may not be the best action, logically, for us to take -- why have we become more emotional and less logical? I think the answer lies in our educational system and in our reliance upon the internet to find the answers to our problems. In terms of our educational system, where do we teach the next generation how to analyze a problem and to find the best solution that addresses all of the issues the problem raises in an organized, logical fashion? The best source of analytical reasoning always was in math class and those dreaded word problems for starters. Another source, at least in my grade school, was the modelling by the teacher of looking at a situation through a lens that, while giving attention to the students' emotional needs, nevertheless provided a logical argument or solution to a dispute between students. "Why, Johnny, do you think Jane wants to play that game with you and your friends?" There was always an appeal to the student to think, not just an appeal to how Johnny or Jane felt about the situation. There was always a combined logical and emotional response the teacher elicited, but never a pure appeal to emotion. I do wonder how often, when we live in a world focused more on how people feel than how they think, educators today take the time to have students think about their actions, not just have them react to how others feel about their actions.
And then there is the mind-numbing use of the internet to answer all of our problems and to address all of our needs. See what I did there? I appealed to your emotional side to make you fear that your brain is going soft because you spend all of your life interacting with Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Netflix, and every other time sucking app that is on your phone, your Ipad, your laptop and your smart tv. But here is my logical argument: when pursuing your basic needs, you no longer have to think beyond pushing a few virtual buttons or entering a few keystrokes to have those needs addressed. When is the last time you said before ordering something online: "Hmmn, I wonder how this works?" or perhaps "Do I really need this and can I really afford this?" In short, in our daily lives, do we really ever think anymore, or do we just act with or react to emotional stimuli, like the rest of the animal kingdom?
So, if I have persuaded you that (a) we are sliding down a slope where we are thinking more with the limbic portions of our brains than with our logical frontal lobes and (b) logically, that is not a good thing, then I ask you: What do you think we should do about it? Here are two suggestions: First, at least in high school, introduce a course in basis logic that is mandatory for graduation. Teach students the principle of correlation vs causation and the principle of Occam's razor. (It is OK if you don't know what Occam's razor is. And it is OK to google it or just go to this link: https://fs.blog/2019/10/occams-razor/ I don't judge you for using Google to seek out knowledge about logical reasoning!). If more of us applied logical principles to our everyday lives, then maybe the political parties would find less power in making the emotional arguments, and the conspiracy theorists would have fewer successes in convincing us that we are all going to die at the hands of Joe Biden or Donald Trump or <insert your favorite Bond villain here>. There may be some very logical reasons while each of those named may cause us harm, but you will have to convince me with logic and reason why that is so and why I should find it in my logically-enlightened self-interest to care.
Secondly, spend as much time every day thinking as you do reacting or at least half as much time. If you pray, ask in one of your prayers for the ability to think through your issues with the intellect our Creator has given our species to distinguish us from bonobo apes and fleas and other creatures of this Earth. If you meditate, think about how you can transcend above emotional responses to the stresses you endure and implement a little more logic and reason into your every day life. If you don't pray or don't meditate, then whatever you do, even if it is posting your emotional reactions to today's events on social media or binge watching Netflix to process your day to day life or playing a little online poker with Ivan from Russia, Maria from Bolivia and Jans from Norway to escape your reality of wherever you are in the world, give your brain a little me time and spend a little time exercising your logic skills directly. Like those muscles from your youth, if you don't use them you lose them, and it is painful to try to recover them.
So, here is your homework if you are willing to get outside your comfort zone and think about, well, thinking logically: sometime this week, learn more about Occam's razor and find one political argument or beer commercial or statement by your significant other that violates this principle of logic, and in your own mind, correct or discard the argument and smile to yourself that you have used your frontal lobe to preserve our species by keeping logic and reason from becoming extinct, one human at a time.
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