Passionate Logic
Society has pegged logic and rational behaviour as cold, and any emotion is deemed warm. I challenge this silly notion.
This idea has been further stereotyped by Hollywood. Have you ever noticed that highly logical or pedantic thinkers are usually cast as evil characters? It's as if high IQs automatically make you bad. Science fiction movies often depict highly evolved creatures as logical but cold and malevolent.
This is probably why I always liked Star Trek's Spock. He breaks the mold. He is a 'coldly' logical creature yet is always labeled by his crew-mates as the most 'warmly human of all of us'.
It's interesting to note that scientists usually assume intelligent alien life forms will be compassionate. Can you say personal projection?
It is the person that is warm or cold; logic and emotion are mere tools.
As an exercise, try to imagine a cold but emotional person. It doesn't work does it? But why shouldn't it? Just because you are emotional that doesn't make you affectionate. One of the definitions of 'cold' is 'lacking emotion' but other definitions include 'not affectionate or friendly' and 'exhibiting no enthusiasm'.
Interestingly enough, I even found this definition in the dictionary: 'So intense as to be almost uncontrollable: cold fury.' Fascinating!
King Lear has long been one of my favorite works by Shakespeare. In it, three daughters are asked by their father and king to express their love so that the distribution of the kingdom may befit their merit:
Which of you shall we say doth love us most,
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge?
The first two daughters flatter and pour honey but when it comes to Cordelia's turn, she utters these unforgettable lines:
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; no more nor less.
And:
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
To those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, things deteriorate quickly and in the end, the first two daughters betray and abuse their father while the banished Cordelia remains fiercely loyal and loving.
It is beyond me how anyone can assume that decisions based on emotions are inherently better. If I had a friend that expressed his friendship based solely on emotion, I would keep a safe distance.
Emotion can just as easily make you do the wrong thing or whimsically change your tune. On the other hand, logic can be compassionate where emotion fails. As such, I find emotions overrated, undependable, selfish and cold.
This idea has been further stereotyped by Hollywood. Have you ever noticed that highly logical or pedantic thinkers are usually cast as evil characters? It's as if high IQs automatically make you bad. Science fiction movies often depict highly evolved creatures as logical but cold and malevolent.
This is probably why I always liked Star Trek's Spock. He breaks the mold. He is a 'coldly' logical creature yet is always labeled by his crew-mates as the most 'warmly human of all of us'.
It's interesting to note that scientists usually assume intelligent alien life forms will be compassionate. Can you say personal projection?
It is the person that is warm or cold; logic and emotion are mere tools.
As an exercise, try to imagine a cold but emotional person. It doesn't work does it? But why shouldn't it? Just because you are emotional that doesn't make you affectionate. One of the definitions of 'cold' is 'lacking emotion' but other definitions include 'not affectionate or friendly' and 'exhibiting no enthusiasm'.
Interestingly enough, I even found this definition in the dictionary: 'So intense as to be almost uncontrollable: cold fury.' Fascinating!
King Lear has long been one of my favorite works by Shakespeare. In it, three daughters are asked by their father and king to express their love so that the distribution of the kingdom may befit their merit:
Which of you shall we say doth love us most,
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge?
The first two daughters flatter and pour honey but when it comes to Cordelia's turn, she utters these unforgettable lines:
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; no more nor less.
And:
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
To those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, things deteriorate quickly and in the end, the first two daughters betray and abuse their father while the banished Cordelia remains fiercely loyal and loving.
It is beyond me how anyone can assume that decisions based on emotions are inherently better. If I had a friend that expressed his friendship based solely on emotion, I would keep a safe distance.
Emotion can just as easily make you do the wrong thing or whimsically change your tune. On the other hand, logic can be compassionate where emotion fails. As such, I find emotions overrated, undependable, selfish and cold.
posted by Baron | 4:10 pm
2 Comments:
@Baron: Did you notice that incase of "emotional", in your refered movies, the most emotional people are always the evil characters (in my point of view, emotional you can be in a positive (light) or negative (dark/evil) way.
Especially in child series, it seems that emotion is replaced by strongness. What's your point of view?
Perhaps you mean rage as an emotion that is pegged on evil characters, but in most movies I've seen, the good guys are sensitive and weep, and the bad guys are calculating.
My challenge is based on the fact that I know warm logical people and horrible sensitive people.
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