Sunday, August 12, 2018

A few quick notes before travelling east

Two installments in the Stub series are queued up for Monday and Tuesday.  Please forgive me if they are a little bit rough. 


At the risk of being an echo
You have seen it written in many other places, but one of the threats to your well being is that "Feelings" have been fully equivalenced with are considered identically interchangeable with "Thoughts".

This was driven home, again, as I watched game shows with my parents.  "Golly, that answer just doesn't feel right."  And we hear it so often it no longer sounds weird.

A major issue with "feelings" is that there is no way to test them.  Rational thought can be tested.  The holder's path to an opinion can be communicated and replicated.

And then there is the issue of calibration.  "Feelers" are sure they are right because they are sure that their feeling is more intense than anybody else's.  The fallacy is that the less expertise we have on any subject the more intense, the more binary our feelings.  We feel more ambivalent when we discern ten paths to an objective than when we only see one path.

By way of a mental exercise:  Consider a "feeler" who does something they believe helps another person.  They get their daily jolt of neurotransmitters.  Then suppose you are able to demonstrate that their action hurt the recipient.  Will they stop?  History suggest they will not.  They prefer their fantasy and the jolt of Damniamgood-edrine.


A society that puts "feelings" on par with, or superior to "thoughts" is doomed to put simpletons and morons at the helm.  Do you want seasoned navigators at the helm or do you want tempestuous toddlers in charge?

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