We understand that we are emotional
We understand that we get upset, get angry, get sad, get scared — and make subpar decisions under that influence
I still think we FAIL to fully appreciate JUST HOW MUCH we are driven by EMOTIONS
And just how much the WORLD is driven by emotions
And how well the world can be explained in terms of emotions
I wrote previously that intelligence is slave to emotions
Indeed it is
Under influence of emotion powerful enough — your perception of reality is distorted
And your intelligence is merely serving the intellectualisation, rationalisation — of the thesis already established by your emotional needs
The more intelligent you are — the more intelligent the intellectualisation
Doesn’t mean it’s not wrong
I used to think this process was mostly limited to emotionally-charged matters, like relationships, personal beliefs, etc.
But now I’m starting to believe that even cool and “rational” subjects are prone to dogma and emotionality
Again this shouldn’t be surprising — cognitive biases and logical fallacies don’t discriminate — their impact is as powerful on personal matters as it is on general
Yet it does surprise me
It surprises me
Now I think almost EVERYTHING can be explained in terms of EMOTIONAL ATTITUDE:
-obviously relations
-obviously culture and media
-obviously politics
-obviously religion
-obviously public perceptions
-life choices, ambition or lack thereof
-obviously consumer behaviours
but also:
-MARKETS
-ACADEMIA and RESEARCH
-TRUTH-pursuing
-HISTORY
-entire ORGANISATIONS as a WHOLE, businesses, corporations, departments, institutions, you fucking name it
-you name it
and again it’s the MAGNITUDE of that INFLUENCE which is relevant
It’s NOT about merely temporarily getting emotional and making poor decision
It’s about PERSISTENT DISTORTIONS to perception and analysis of reality
And PERSISTENCE OF those persisting DISTORTIONS, the resilience of fallacious beliefs
Other way to phrase it,
Perhaps attempting to explain BIASES and ERRORS and EXTREME SENTIMENTS — in terms of FACTS AND LOGIC — is missing the point
Perhaps we starting point should be EMOTION preceding it
Don’t you think an internalised, persisting EMOTION, around a given subject, a COMPLEX — would influence how we think and what we believe, over the long term?
-Fear
-Doubt
-Envy
-Insecurity
-Greed
–Hostility and aggression
And again
It doesn’t mean there’s absence of REASON and FACTS — WITHIN the DISCOURSE created by those emotions, complexes, sentiments,
There can be perfectly rational chain of reasoning PROCEEDING from a misguided premise
How stupid is our public discourse actually?
You can think it’s very stupid, or you can think it’s wise
It’s both. Sometimes it’s stupid, sometimes it sounds quite intelligent, and explores a wide range of phenomena and theories and ideas
But,
What if this QUALITY REASONING and DEBATING shouldn’t even be APPLIED to those matters
It’s just that Overton window, or whatever, is predetermined by EMOTIONAL sentiments
What if when you’re actually COOL and DETACHED, for once — you realise we’ve been asking ALL THE WRONG QUESTIONS?
I would suggest viewing EVERY statement through the lens of EMOTION PRECEDING IT
EVEN if it seems perfectly rational and factual and cool
LOOK AT THE EMOTION PRECEDING IT
Any statement:
“John Smith will make a poor president BECAUSE of his foreign policy”
Is foreign policy the point? Is John Smith the point? Is there maybe EVEN different point?
“Adam Adams is a fraud”
Is he a fraud? Is fraudulence in general a point? Does this premise admit of more nuance? IS NUANCE even the point? Maybe this statement reveals more about the speaker than Adam Adams, or the world in general?
“Society is weak”
What the fuck does this even convey? EVEN IF it’s followed by actual postulates of superior society, RATIONAL postulates — EVEN THEN you may wonder if this statement’s purpose was some service to the world — or service to the speaker
“Incorporated INC stock is going to crash”
Again, this can be followed by a lot of rationale. AND can be challenged by a lot of rationale. But perhaps better question is: is this statement emerging from GREED, first? And perhaps THEN we can choose to address it, analyse it, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it all makes more sense if we just understand greed and fear
Again, EACH problem can be addressed:
–rationally at it’s own level, at the level of the argument presented (e.g. direct refutation)
-rationally holistically — considering the WIDER perspective
-OR straight to EMOTION preceding it — and only then optionally addressed on it’s own merit
And what I’m saying is that the latter will unfortunately be most often the most optimal
ESPECIALLY in our stupid modern world — where everything is hyperbolic and distorted, thanks to social media radioactivity and filth
Granted it likely wasn’t particularly cool and rational back when we would gleefully burn the witch and her cat at stake
CONSIDER MEME, EMOTION — in EVERYTHING
NEVER assume that rational is yet reasonable
That complicated is meaningful
That serious is serious
THE MARKET is emotional.
99.9% public discourse is emotional.
The TOP CEOs are also emotional
Top businesses are emotional
Politics is OBVIOUSLY entirely emotional, and 99% of it is not worth debating, because it stems from lowly emotions of emotionally incontinent voters, journos and politicking politicians
Academia is emotional, driven by it’s own emotional politics, emotional fashion, and emotional old good greed
Every other theory is emotional, it only serves emotion, it’s not interested in extending that which is known
Obviously ART is emotional, ENTERTAINMENT is emotional — that almost it’s entire purpose
Obviously NEWS are emotional — that’s the only reason we’re interested in this fucking bullshit, 99% of us anyway, that have no bearing on the world anyway
AGAIN
I DON’T SEE WHAT’S NOT EMOTIONAL
What’s not an EFFECT of inalienable human EMOTIONALITY
AGAIN, not merely SLIGHTLY and temporarily distorting decision-making
But basically driving 99% of what we THINK, DO, BELIEVE, TALK about
This is NOT a call to “abandon emotions”, and “just be rational”
“JUST BEING RATIONAL” is often even MORE EMOTIONAL — since it DENIES emotions — therefore becomes blind to them
There must be UNDERSTANDING of the EMOTION behind it
ARE YOU GREEDY?
ARE YOU ENVIOUS?
ARE YOU FRUSTRATED?
ARE YOU ANXIOUS?
well, if you EVER ARE,
if there is ANY CHANCE that you have ANY degree of those emotions around ANY subject,
EVEN if you can’t “feel them”,
that means that LIKELY they influence what you even look at and think about
And being RATIONAL AFTER that fact — is already too late
You’re already blind to 90% of nuance
You’re already GUARANTEED to have a dumb, misguided take
Whether it’s business, life opportunities, politics, society, relationships, investing, health — YOU ALREADY ARE STUPID
You ALREADY have a STUPID TAKE
MORE stupid than you’re brain is capable of , that’s the point
You’re not very intelligent, ON AVERAGE, and it’s ok
But 90% of the problem is that you lose before you even begin
Because your emotion tells you to:
-be sceptical of that
-be critical of this
-be POMPOUS and self-important about this and that, delude yourself your insights are so impressive and deep and important and that this matter is so CRITICAL, and meeting your EXISTENTIAL = EMOTIONAL NEEDS, cheaply
-be arrogant about that, because surely “you know better”
-and be stubborn about this and that, because you just “know you’re right”, and because you’re so “persistent”
THIS is what makes the world go around
Again, we all know that “emotions influence us”
FUCK that
EMOTIONS RUN THE WORLD
WORLD IS EMOTIONAL
WORLD HAS EMOTIONS, ANIMA MUNDI has emotions
Just like it has MEMES, IDEAS, which persist,
Just like it can have VIRUSES attacking it
This is the way to explain 90% of the world
Leave the last 10% to your BRAIN, to actually try to understand
Figure out the 10% which isn’t outright distorted by emotions, that actually promises some progress, some advantage,
And you’ll do pretty fucking well