The rational reduction

Growing up, the TV was black-and-white and full of Westerns. It was easy to tell who was who, for the good guys wore white hats and bad guys black ones. It has taken me years to get over it.

As we saw last time, with the introduction of perspective, points-of-view became the way to see and understand the world. More than one is possible, of course, so the question immediately arises as to which perspective, which point-of-view is the right one. We quickly moved from a simple what-is to what-is-right. A reasonable person will tell you that it depends: when seen one way, thus-and-so is right; when seen another way, something else is right. Our sensibilities regarding right and wrong, however, don't like to deal with more than one "right". Something is right, or it is not. In other words, we developed a whole way of thinking based on what is right. The good guys, in the white hats were right; the guys in the black hats were wrong, and a whole lot of effort was put into making sure we youngsters understood the message. Like I said, it's taken me years to get over it.

The competition between competing points-of-view leads rather quickly to relativity. Everything becomes relative, it depends on how you look at it, and in the end, it means that any point-of-view is as good as any other point-of-view, one opinion is as good as any other. But this is intellectually and emotionally unsatisfactory, we feel deeply uncomforatble. We long for clarity, for surety, for certainty.

And here came the cavalry or the posse to the rescue. It was all very clear: the good guys were right because they could draw faster and shoot straighter; they were stronger and better fighters; they overwhelmed the dark forces with strength, intelligence and, well, violence. Might made right. Apart from all the possible color associations that one can spin off of this, it was by power and sheer force that right was established. And in all this sorting of the wheat from the chaff, of the good from the bad, of the right from the wrong, we added an even more insidious degree of certainty ... at least those of us who were still in doubt. It was not simply a matter of either/or, either you're right or you're wrong, no, it became a matter of you're either with us or you're against us.

Not only was this thinking approach taken to an insane degree in recent American political history, what we find quite prevalent this days is the thinking that if you don't agree with the right point-of-view, you automatically subscribe to its opposite: if you are for the Palestinians, you are against the Israelis; if you are for gun control, you are against guns; if you are against the death penalty, you are for allowing violent criminals to roam the streets; if you are against GMO foods, you are an organic tree-hugger; if you are against casino capitalism, you must be a communist. Yes, it has come to this. And this type of thinking, this type of argumentation, which is way too prevalent these days, is dangerous, for it carries within itself its own seeds of destruction; it is by nature destructive thinking. It is this allegedly "rational" thinking that allows for the clearly irrational behavior we witness all around us: the destruction of the environment in the name of profit; the perpetuation of war and oppression in the name of freedom; the ... well, I'm sure by now you get the picture.

Our rationality is at an end. The rational reduction that I have experienced throughout my own lifetime has become, well, irrational.

Reference
Gebser, J. (1986) The Ever-present Origin, Authorized translation by Noel Barstad with Algis Mikunas, Athens/OH, Ohio University Press [originally published 1949]. (EPO)

Ten lords-a-leaping

On the tenth day of Christmas, our thoughts look ahead
toward the end of the season, and what has been said
about goings and comings and why there's a time
in each mundane year that may still be sublime.

If it is so obvious that "we" is more important than "me", and if it is so apparent that no one really gets to where they are (positively or negatively) without lots and lots of help from others, and if it is clear that the very notion of a self-made person is fundamentally flawed, why do we insist upon believing it? These are very strong, very pervasive and very persistent fictions, but we as a society, that is, we in the West, particularly America, have absolutely not problem accepting them not only as "true", but as givens, as if this is how the world actually works. Don't you find that strange? I do.

On Facebook and in my browsings elsewhere, I see a lot of ranting and raving about how silly it is to believe in things that are patently not true (like Santa Claus) or that have been "utterly refuted" (whatever that means, like the myth of Jesus or religion). Could it be that we have simply exchanged on "religion" for another? What I have also noticed is that there are widespread, impassioned pleas for rationality, as if this were a value in itself. How many of us have stopped to ask what "rational" really is?

The word derives from the Latin ratio, which has something to do with procedures, systems and ordering, but fundamentally it is a manner of separating, of dividing one thing from another. We see this in our English word "ratio" which expresses a proportion (e.g. ¼, that is one part of four). While dividing, sifting and sorting are extremely helpful skills, they are not the only ones that we should develop. We need to be even more adept at putting things together, of synthesizing, generating, and creating as well. If we extoll the dividing side, the ratio, we neglect the producing side. We become – pretty much as we are in general – unbalanced.

No, what I would make a plea for is creative-reasonable thought, or reasonably creative thought. Rational thought is not the epitome of thought, it is simply one of many kinds of thought. Over the course of human history, we have had other dominant types of thinking, to be sure. Rational thought is merely the last in a long line of them, and not necessarily the most advantagous generally speaking. You see, at times, it may be worth our while to even think about thinking itself.

That's another reason why this time of year is not only special but important. It is a time for us to exercise our minds in other ways, in positive, other-oriented, creative, and even magical and mythical ways. All of these kinds of thinking are part of who we are as human beings, and it seems such a waste to devote our time and energy to such a limited part of who we can be. But, you have to be open to it … to the possibilities these kinds of thoughts can bring and to the Spirit of the Season which is just another way of saying the same thing.