14)  THE ILLOGICAL

Yani and I came up with a new way to look at the current situation in the world, and we call it “the illogical”.

We already know that when a person takes on a belief system which is false, contradicts the facts of history, it is almost impossible to change their mind.  We can explain to them logically certain facts and it doesn’t matter.  It just sets them into their conspiracy theory more tightly, and now to them we are either too stupid or uninformed to get it, or we are actually a part of the conspiracy.

I did a posting on the truth and it comes down to “who do you believe?”.  Do we believe in textbooks, newspapers, TV news, or in social media sites which enhance our conspiracy theory?  How is it possible to know which belief system is real and which is fake?

I think the only way to know is to move into the woods and deal with nature for survival.  Nature will teach that some belief systems won’t put food in our bellies and some will.  But living in civilization where we can survive even with false theories, there isn’t any correction.

I had a disturbing experience a couple years ago.  A new boat anchored near us with a young couple, well young to us, probably in their forties.  They were already friends with another couple near us and they invited us to dinner with the new boat,  just the 3 couples.

The new guy, call him Jim, had long hair and we had heard that he was into computers, so I thought we might get along famously.  During drinks I asked Jim what he did and it turns out that he is not a programmer, or analyst, or a tester, he uses a computer application for his job.  Well that’s ok, a little misleading “being into computers”, but ok, whatever.

Somehow the term “global warming” came up and Jim said that he didn’t believe in that.  I mentioned something about Greenland ice cores and the scientists who are now in agreement about it, and Jim stated that he didn’t believe in science.

Whoa!!!  It was too much and I couldn’t help blurting out “I am shocked”, at which point the host said under his breath “Here we go again”.  I’m not sure whether he was talking about me or Jim or the conversation.  Anyway it became clear that Jim did not believe in science and he used a computer for his job, a computer composed of immense amounts of science.  After that there was no way we could be friends and we smiled and waved politely to each other when passing in the dinghy.

It has been pointed out to me that our perception of science has changed:  what used to be solid fact is being modified.*  It is a failing of scientists that they don’t make it clear that physics hasn’t changed since Newton, on our level.  But for the very large or fast, Einstein has discovered relativity and for the very small, there is quantum mechanics, but Newton’s mechanics still work for our size and speed.  Physics and chemistry are hard sciences which always work, biology has a lot more variables, not so easy, and then when we get into nutrition, forget it, researchers have still not settled on the correct reasons.  That distinction has not been made clear either.

But it disturbed me and I have been thinking about Jim since, trying to figure it out, how could someone become that illogical?  What happened?   Could it be that that ordinary person can’t keep up with the scientific changes, and just gives up?*

I think I know now.  Remember how we have 2 brains in our heads, one is associative and the other logical, the elephant and the rider.  The associative right brain takes almost no energy and is very quick and the left brain requires effort and eats up energy and is slow, reasoning things out.  The left brain is like a muscle, it gets stronger when used often and gets weaker with disuse.   (Note:  the brains aren’t actually divided by function left and right, but it is convenient to use that distinction.)

Two possibilities that I can think of, one is that we are lazy and don’t want to expend the energy and attention, and two is that we aren’t very good with logic and we have learned that it doesn’t pay to try.  Either way, logic becomes unimportant, the rider doesn’t bother to try to change the direction of the elephant, and we can slip deeper and deeper into our conspiracy theory.

It seems that we can be logical in certain areas, for our income for instance.  Evidence shows that bigger money is paid to those who can use logic well.  And even bigger money is paid to those who can influence others by, I am assuming, understanding other people’s desires, fears, strengths, and weaknesses and can play to those.  For instance, greedy people are easy to trick.

By the way, I admit that my metaphysics theory should be included in this conversation, especially because of the lack of proof.  But in my defense, I believe that my theory would do me well surviving in nature, largely because of its strong pragmatic aspect.

So what happens to a person when logic is turned off?  Incorrect reasoning can lead to making bad decisions.  With bad decisions we lose friends, spouses, houses, support.  And what happens to someone who loses all of those.  In nature they wouldn’t survive.  But in our civilizations, we can move to a city, survive living in the streets.   What’s that called?  Homeless.

It’s a new paradigm, the end of the age of reason.  What is the cause?  Lack of jobs is a big one.  Personally I think it is more important for a person to have a job than it is go to Target and get cheap goods made overseas.  So lack of meaningful, or for that matter any, employment.  A person needs somewhere to go everyday, something to do, satisfaction from earning money, meaningful or not.  But now for those without a job, there is no reason to think logically—logic doesn’t pay off anymore.  It actually makes sense to become illogical.  Some people even with jobs slip down that slippery slope into conspiracy theories.

With the loss of jobs due to both inexpensive overseas workers and to automation, the ranks of the illogical will swell, which means that what we are seeing in cities now with the homeless is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are homeless shelters in the cities, sometimes filled to capacity, but we have talked to some homeless and they prefer to sleep on the sidewalks because “there are too many rules” in the shelters.

There are some people who understand those weary of logic and if they have a mind to, they can manipulate the illogical with all kinds of untruths.  Maybe there should be a logic test before being allowed to vote, which of course is unconstitutional.  Is this the end of democracy?

If the planet has consciousness and we are the children of the planet, was this planned all along?  Or a mistake?  Enlightened people often rear unenlightened children.  Another puzzle.

* Thanks to Marlyce for the suggestions.