Thinking Better

A major challenge to all humans is the pride we take in our capacity of thinking clearly.  We make decisions and are convinced they are good decisions, will argue for them, and push for them.  Frequently, however, there are design flaws in our thinking process that are so universal it is only possible to see them in another person and hypothesize them in one’s own behavior.

All violent feelings have the same effect.  They produce falseness in our impressions of external things.  This was called the Pathetic Fallacy by John Ruskin who wrote this in 1856.  What he is saying is that whether you fall in love, are full of frustration, or are angry and upset, a special set of distorting lenses begin to flip in front of your eyes.  It is like getting used to wearing sunglasses, and all of a sudden you wonder why it has gotten so dark at 5:00pm.  Like Jack Nicholson you think the dimmed sunglasses view of the world is normal.

The Pathetic Fallacy is well named.  Think of how you feel about someone  immersed in puppy love or anger, and making really poor decisions and we say, “That’s pathetic.”

You can apply the Pathetic Fallacy to the right or the left political perspectives in the United States.  The right is angry at the left.  The left is angry at the right.  And as a result neither can see the other nor can either see what is best for the country.  It’s pathetic!

Typically, in the second stage of any conflict, we begin escalating and exaggerating.  It is no longer a difference between us, but  where we call the other person immoral, illegal, traitors, or turncoats.  Mostly the use of this rhetoric is to help us build allies for our own side which is the transitional phase to the third stage of conflict where the other side moves from being wrong and bad to evil.  Once a conflict has risen to the level of the other side being evil it makes it much easier to attack them and even destroy them with no remorse.

Thanks to the New Yorker for inspiring this comment.

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