Good topic.
I see that society has a lot of trouble from people worshiping at the
altar of emotion.
Emotion is very useful, but it's similar to a sensor - ideally
(functioning correctly) it raises awareness and provides additional
input about important things in your environment and in yourself. Those
things affect your survival - danger, disease, industry, help, needs un/met.
As long as people use emotion appropriately (using the tool for what it
does well) they should generally benefit.
But when emotion is elevated to a goal in itself, or applied to every
task as a supertool to solve everything, there is chaos. People can be
perfectly happy doing something great - or equally happy doing something
very destructive to themselves or others. Emotion is not a reliable
final judge of good and bad paths or solutions. It's only a useful
indicator that something COULD be going well or badly. It's a good tool
to bring the condition to our attention, but we have better tools for
solving many problems.
Likewise, people with an overwhelming primary goal of feeling
happy/appreciated/fun/excitement etc (or the flip side, avoiding various
negative or bland emotions) can cause all sorts of problems around them.
This is where you see those weird situations with a lot of time wasted
because they are pursuing a totally different angle. It can affect an
entire company or government office. I have seen real-life examples
where the community actually suffers as a result.
For example (but this a true story, just names and industry removed) a
manager who feels inferior may develop persuasive verbal and nonverbal
skills specifically to influence people and advance personally in
career. But having already secured - through persuasion and networking,
or sometimes through corruption - a position that is above his or her
actual management abilities and knowledge/skills of the profession, the
same manager is worried someone will learn the dark secret and something
bad will happen.
Actually the job position remains fairly secure, at least at first, and
logically all this person would need to do is simply focus on the job -
do things properly, brush up on skills, improve, utilize the best
employees, become more honest and professional - but such people can't
see that because emotion is still in charge.
Instead they focus more than ever on building the persuasion and
networking, forming a clique to manage perceptions and basically control
thoughts and decisions - which transforms the workplace from
results-oriented to friends-oriented. The manager is preoccupied with
this and with the web of intrigue, leaving no chance for actual learning
and improvement. Office conflicts are frequent, solutions are bizarre,
coverups and shenanigans are commonplace, good workers with real
knowledge are feared and punished or suppressed. Customer service and
provided services take a dive, employee turnover increases, and the
business or government office suffers all kinds of headaches.
Many similar happenings. Anytime someone is more in pursuit of either an
emotion or a personal agenda rather than the task at hand, things go
badly. In some cities multiple offices and industries are screwed up by
these types of situations, plus corruption - ending in (depending on the
department or business in question) everything from postal mail blowing
down the street in the wind, to rabid animals running rampant, to
clogged traffic, and of course long customer lines and disorder at the
grocery store.
Less dramatic but still far reaching - decisions and industries driven
by psychological or emotional needs (such as overcoming feelings of
inferiority by pursuing grandeur) are often not the soundest decisions
and directions. It's a big show to bolster the star. That affects the
end consumer and so on - their lives are often enriched, ironically, but
usually there are unnecessary headaches and unpleasant side effects that
come with it. It could be even better if driven more by sound reasoning
and less distracted by emotional factors.
I believe that achieving happiness is most efficiently and permanently
achieved not by pursuing happiness itself, and certainly not by putting
happiness or fear of various emotions in the driver's seat, but rather
by either doing something well, or else doing something good.
But by doing good or doing it well - I don't mean virtue signaling or
acting a part, again in pursuit of emotion or approval or appearances
rather than the true characteristics of the thing itself - that's
another HUGE route that leads to crazy and disastrous results. What
looks great playing a role on TV is not the best approach in real life,
so acting is not the same as doing. Again a very real-life example with
names and titles removed, often with literally life and death
consequences depending on the industry. Which kind of doctor do you want
- the guy who plays a doctor on TV, or the guy who plays a doctor in the
hospital (in other words a real doctor who is driven primarily by
appearances and popular trends and social status), or the real doctor
who really focuses on doctoring? :D
And when people cater to emotion, honesty often goes out the window.
They constantly have to rationalize, distract, and persuade just to
avoid facing reality or allowing others to see reality. That's a big
problem everywhere- and especially in coding; logic is based on true vs
false, and when people are fuzzy on that in daily life, it doesn't help
their scripting skills. Rationalizing looks like logic, but the
cause/effect relationship is reversed.
Finally, coming to terms with who and what you are, and the reality of
your situation and our world. I live everyday with physical limitations
that many would find extremely difficult to cope with - wheelchair 90%
of waking time, going outside my home (or overdoing any physical
activity) oiften makes me exhausted and sick, I've had to give up or
adjust everything from hobbies to personal interaction to showers. I've
lost a great deal.
But I'm happy every day, no emotional troubles (although plenty of
physical pain and discomfort) because I use emotion as a useful sensor
and tool in the areas where it excels, but I do not put it on a pedestal
or let it run my life in areas where it is not the best available tool.
Logic works best for me, generally speaking! Emotion is good too, but
it's most useful when kept in its proper place. Just like an oil gauge
is important for your car, but it should not be the reason and purpose
for driving, nor should it steer. Ironically the pursuit of happiness,
at least when taken to extremes or put at the center of life and
decision-making, is probably the LEAST efficient route to achieving
happiness. :)
Best wishes,
Curry Kenworthy
Custom Software Development
"Better Methods, Better Results"
LiveCode Training and Consulting
http://livecodeconsulting.com/
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