Is the human race logical?

"The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity."

~ Voltaire. French philosopher and writer.

A lamentable failure, humans are a dream that became a partial reality; limited only by the extent of their inability to rise above the cave man temperament. And, merely because they possess a greatly elevated power of thinking in comparison to other known life forms; whoever said that the humans were a logical race? Simply look at the statistics. They have hunted not only other species to extinction, and near extinction; but also some of their own. They kill without reason: for joy, greed, or gluttony. In their ignorance: they feel superior and breed superior ambition; they cause violent or unjust exercise of power; they tread on the other man's freedom; they speak with a forked tongue; they create gods who address only those who worship them, not humanity. Are these the act of a logical race? Can we claim these deeds to be capable of or characterised by clear reasoning, and versed in the principles of logic? I think humans are not creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. If one cannot see the truth behind their actions; then truth is an excuse for a lack of imagination!

Logic is the anatomy of thought. Logic ought to be the beginning of wisdom, not the end. Wanting in the power of true and right discernment: enlightenment and erudition, insight and intelligence, judgment, knowledge, learning, prudence, reason, sagacity and sapience, and in short - sense; humans do have an amazing capacity for believing what they choose - and excluding that which is painful, however illogical it may seem. Thus, they have mixed up the art of thinking with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

Accepting the self to be perfect is one such confusion, and it is often the sign of a delusional mind: believing with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness; and such non-specific concepts of madness have been around for several thousand years, and in fact from the time of the evolution of the human race, his origins. Although, such madness are not tied to, any particular disease; they have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states: both physical and mental. Man has often been more mad than logical. In his madness, and devoid of logic, he, sometimes pretends to be, and talks of him being, a great man; realising not, that greatness is bestowed on men by the judgment of history; not by braggadocio.

Companion

He realises not that greatness depends, not on what he vaunts and flaunts about while living; nor on that which he leaves; but on how he has lived; whether or not, that eternal companion - his conscience - is clear, and has, gently but joyously, cleared his passage when the time to depart is near.

Logic, like humour, is a difficult concept because fact and fallacy keep interfering with the easy flow of both.

The thing about logic and humour is, if you do not have it, you cannot understand it; and if you do have it, no explanation is necessary to grasp and appreciate it. A humorous person has to be a logical person to be able to use errors of reasoning for comical purposes, to create fallacies - fake arguments that prove nothing.

Fallacies often seem superficially sound, and far too often have immense persuasive power, even after being, clearly exposed as false.

For instance, when one says: 'with the first link, the chain is forged; the first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably'; it may first sound as a fallacy, but is logically correct and has a deeper meaning than what is first apparent.

To be logical, as with being humorous, takes courage - to look inside yourself, laugh at yourself - and even more courage to write it for others to see.

However, as much as the want of logic annoys; too much logic bores. Life eludes, and is not all about, logic; and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced because there comes a time in every man's life when he must stop thinking and start doing. Only when thinking and doing both conform to logic, man is, said to be logical; and that is a rare occurrence in the human race.

"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it," said Rabindranath Tagore. As with that, if the world we live in is a stage; the fact is that the play called life is badly cast with, poor, defective, deficient, and imperfect, actors who are only perfect in their imperfections.

If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that man is made entirely of faults, that s/he is a flawed creature, stitched together with good intentions.

Flaw

"Because, even if given something perfect, it is the nature of man to dedicate his mind to finding something wrong with it and then when he is able to find something faulty and wrong with it, he rejoices in his find, and sees only the flaw, becoming blind to everything else!

And so... it is in the nature of the mortal to rejoice over the one thing that he can proudly say that he found on his own, with no help from another, whether it be a shadow in a perfect diamond, or a faint beautiful reflection in an extremely dull mirror." Sourced from, C. Joy Bell C - known for her poetry, prose, novels, and her love of cakes. The truth is that, most times, even if we see the flaw in us, we tend to fall in love with it. When we say 'I love you' to someone, what it means, or at least ought to mean, is that 'I love you with all your flaws.' Love, no matter how it is, expressed, is still love. We all have flaws, and so will our love be full of flaws; but that does not diminish it. Love exists for the one purpose of: to conquer with, and live with.

On the other hand, the mind has its own logic, but does not often let others in on it.

Hence, humans may not be a logical species, but if we aspire to live with love in our hearts for all of life, and also love the world we live in; at least, we will not be living in a fool's paradise, and make the world a hell, for that rare breed of wise men of whom, few are.

I would like to end with this story of a fool: In the midst of a raging storm, when asked to come into the house and take shelter, a man once said, "I am a man, and a great man at that, loved by my people. I am not afraid. I will not hide behind stone and mortar. I will stand before the wind and make it respect me." The man was, killed. The moral: The wind does not respect a fool, however, great a man; whether he be loved, or hated by the people. So is it, with the winds of change.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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