We humans are not rational.
That point was hammered home again last afternoon and evening.
Southern Belle is expanding the "bench" of babysitters for Quicksilver.
At 1:00 PM yesterday, the time Southern Belle had directed the babysitter to put Quicksilver down for a nap, the babysitter decided that a nap was not necessary for Quicksilver.
When Southern Belle picked up Quicksilver, the babysitter defended the decision by saying "Quicksilver said she didn't WANT a nap. I started to "put her down" and she said "No." "
That is when Southern Belle knew we were in for a very rough evening.
Toddlers who miss their nap become fragile and respond to stresses that they would normally shrug-off by throwing tantrums, sweeping items off of tables, throwing things, hitting and biting. They become bundles of broken glass, barbed wire and over-heated nitroglycerine.
Nosirree, last afternoon and evening was not a fun time to be at Casa ERJ!
"The authenticity of our own, lived experiences"
One of the marketing gimmicks of the Progressives is the idea that individual, lived experiences are better than history, better than culture which is the distilled wisdom of a thousand generations and millions of people.
Culture says "Put the baby down for the nap". Quicksilver's authentic, lived experiences said "I don't need one today".
The gimmick says "The baby is the ultimate authority of what is best for them." Heady stuff for somebody who is immature.
We have very imperfect models of our internal thinking processes. We do many things for trivial and random reasons and then back-fill with hundreds of reasons why it was "intelligent" and "smart".
Pointing that out will make you very unpopular and will get you uninvited to parties.
An example of pointing out flawed thinking at a social event
"So you say you were "Gay" from birth? What color were the doctor's eyes and what were the names of the nurses who attended to your mother as you were being born? If you had awareness at birth, those are things you should also remember..."
The narrative (a word I hate, by the way) is that an LGBT person deserves special legal protections because they were born that way and they had no choice in the matter, identical to a person born with deeply pigmented skin. That belief absolves them of having to defend hundreds of other awkward decisions.
If they were "born that way" then it must be genetic or due to in-utero insults; those are the only two possibilities. If that is the case, then the rate of LGBT people should be constant or slowly declining due to better pre-natal science. But the last time I looked, the rate of LGBT was approximately 2%-to-4% for the generations who are now over 40 and approaching 25% for women between 20 years old and 30 years old. That cannot be genetics and what kind of in-utero trauma would only impact mothers carrying baby girls in the years 1994-through-2004?
Ironically, the people who consider themselves to be the most "rational" are blind to this distinction. They are typically the worst offenders at "rationalizing after-the-fact" and assuming they are being rational.
Final thoughts
As the old hunters say, the time to do your hunting is before you pull the trigger, not afterward.
If that is not clear to the non-hunters:
Do your research before you shoot
- Practice with your weapon until you know its limitations
- Get permission to hunt before you set out
- Select the specific animal you intend to harvest (don't shoot at the flock of ducks)
- Carefully stalk until you are within a range where you are certain you will "make" the shot
- Or, wait patiently on the stand until the animal wanders within that range
- Wait until the animal presents an ethical, high-percentage shot. Don't shoot at a darting head or at the north-end of a south-bound animal.
- If you cannot keep the crosshairs of the scope on the money-shot, pass-up the shot.
DO NOT:
- Force the shot or count on luck
- Then hunt for the wounded animal(s) after you pulled the trigger
Hunting before you pull the trigger results in much meat in the freezer.
Hunting after you pull the trigger results in lots of dead animals, sore feet and no meat in the freezer.
Rational thinking results in smooth and harmonious relationships.
Rationalizing thinking results in broken glass, barbed wire and over-heated nitroglycerine.
ReplyDeleteFunny how few kleptomaniacs there are. Taking stuff from others is a pretty primal urge,but SomeHow most parents teach that Out of their little brats. The "I was born that way" argument doesn't work for me.