There is a fine line between obsession and rationality. In many ways rationality, or the pursuit of it, can become a deadly obsession. Just as Salome removed the head from Jean-Baptiste, the seeking out of rationality can muddle your sight to literal irrationality and decapitate your reasoning. What a bane, obsession is. What a real damper on intentions it can become. But, in the end, depsite running the risk of becoming infected with the disesase, "obsessive-rationality," seeking rationality is always - always - better than submitting yourself to illogic.
Obsessive rationality is - pound for pound - better than obsessive irrationality. The latter being Salome, the former being Ayn Rand. Which would you choose? Who would you rather be?
The world, on the other hand, is obsessively irrational. Governments, cultures, and individuals wander aimlessly around the globe, knowing not what their motive is. Instead, they allow their actions to be guided by emotion and petty passions. Politics is governed by passion, while economics is governed by reason. Hence, the reason why one is so inefficient while the other is a perfectly balanced system of perfect efficiency.
So, take your pick: be ruled by Salome, or by the Market?
Can obsession ever be rational?
ReplyDeleteAnd it could be argued that everything is governed by emotion at some level, humans seem consistently incapable of separating logic from emotion especially in a world where it is so easy to disguise one as the other.
One final thought, I would argue that America is a shining example of how imbalanced and inefficient economics can be due to an emotion called greed