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Tag: reason

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    The Primal Agony of the Unspoken

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    1–2 minutes

    Similar to the fetishist who knows their ‘object’ is a mere adjunct to a deeper reality, we often live in the shadow of truths we cannot name.

    The "primal agony" occurs when we are confronted with a trauma that has already happened—something we have always known, yet lacked the symbolic language to identify.

    This agony is the crushing pain of exposure; it is the moment a long-buried betrayal or loss is dragged into the light.

    To hide behind disbelief is human, but it is also a state of arrest. We only move forward by applying symbolic logic—language—to the wound. By putting words to the agony, we transform a hidden, destructive force into a space where internalization, healing, and eventual catharsis become possible.

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    The Rationality Illusion

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    1–2 minutes

    We often flatter ourselves by believing we are 90% rational and only 10% emotional.

    A hypnotist—or anyone dealing in the psyche—knows the inverse is true. Logic and data are rarely the drivers of change; they are “after-the-fact” justifications for emotional impulses.

    Once you accept that emotions govern 90% of human behavior, leaving logic at a measley 10%, you realize why reason fails to resolve conflict. Because the vast majority of our “problems” are interpersonal frictions and fears rather than objective obstacles, logic is the wrong tool for the job.

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    The Semantic Slip of Virtue

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    1–2 minutes

    The term moral—rooted in the Greek ethikos—originally described a “practical” path toward a telos. It was a way of being. Over time, however, we transitioned from describing active character patterns to issuing value judgments (moral virtue), effectively swapping an active verb (being) for a static noun (label).

    The Enlightenment accelerated this shift by untethering virtue from communal and religious traditions in favor of purely rational justifications. This created a modern, sterile dichotomy: one is either “rationally moral” or “idiotically virtuous.”

    By stripping away social context and replacing practiced habits with logical compliance, we have lost the freedom of choice (agency via action) in our morality. We are left within an intellectualized cage where virtue is no longer a soul’s path, but a binary of “correct” thought.

    from Alasdair MacIntyre

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    The Illogical Anchor of Virtue

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    Enlightenment rationality attempted to bridge a dangerous gap: to preserve traditional virtue by grounding it in cold logic. But this was a structural error. Once logic is the sole arbiter of purpose, that purpose can be logically inverted; any “moral” rule can be rationalized into its opposite.

    As Aristotle and later Nietzsche understood, virtue is not a derivation of a code, but an act of the will. Rules and social ethics are merely secondary structures. True morality remains a commitment that sits beyond the reach of pure reason. It requires an effort of will—a “will to power” the rules—that logic alone can never sustain.

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    The Great Inversion: Sacred Unreason

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    1–2 minutes

    We’ve entered a mirrored reality where “Truth," once a shared value, is now a partisan slogan to reflexively discard. Enlightenment Reason has been traded for an easier secular theology.

    Deconstructing religion as an unreasonable, modern ideology, has ironically installed a more rigid orthodoxy. "Suicidal empathy" (narcissistic nihilism) supplants objective facts, branding reality as heresy.

    When truth/facts/reason is the enemy of the collective, we haven’t reached the enlightenment utopia where we shape the world with desire; we’ve simply returned to a pre-rational age of unified, unquestionable belief: the medieval dark ages and the Spanish Inquisition.

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    Logic as a Trojan Horse

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    1–2 minutes

    Modern political discourse has abandoned the binary of “heart vs. head” for a more potent alchemy: the synthetic appeal.

    We no longer choose between empathy and utility; instead, we witness a tactical weaving where cherry-picked data serves as a Trojan Horse for moral signaling.

    By grounding arguments in a “utilitarian chessboard” while simultaneously invoking the “sanctity of the soul,” rhetoricians create an impenetrable fortress. To challenge the stats is to be branded heartless; to challenge the emotion is to be labeled irrational.

    This strategic blurring ensures that we don’t just disagree—we exist in entirely different epistemological states, forever talking past one another.

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    American Progressivism’s Evolution

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    It is said European progressives often draw on communist ideals, while American progressives are often said to stem from anarchism. But Lionel Shriver argues it’s not anarchism—it’s narcissistic nihilism.

    She agrees with Gad Saad’s “suicidal empathy,” but sees it as inaccurate; there’s no real empathy, just performative theater. (They don’t actually help the disenfranchised, but don the garb of caring and outrage until they fool themselves into belief.)

    The difficulty is the conversion from Richard Rorty’s “liberal ironist” (who grasped the illogic of the struggle to universalize “anti-cruelty”) into the “non-liberal non-ironist.” This new (extreme) progressive demands instant, whole-hearted allegiance based on emotive beliefs and status rather than reasoned progress.

    The other side: American Conservatism’s Evolution

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    Belief’s Vacuum

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    G.K. Chesterton observed: "when men stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing—they believe in anything."

    Curiously, wielding reason to logically disprove God’s existence elevates reason itself to supreme status. Yet the same tool that dismantles one paradigm can erect equally unmoored ones.

    Without an ultimate anchor, rationalism becomes vulnerable to irrational leaps, enthroning fleeting ideologies or comforting fictions in God’s vacated place.

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    Falling Back on Logic

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    1–2 minutes

    In moments of confusion, we default to logic, seeking order amid tumultuous emotions.

    Yet logic, when imposed on emotional distress, often provokes hostility rather than clarity: logic comes from the same side of the brain that lies to protect your ego.

    The human craves empathy (social equilibrium and order), while rationality leads to a cold calculus that further alienates.

    Emotional commiseration leads to de-escalation, while "clear thinking" can infuriate by doubling down and citing wrongs. Oddly, despite our logical bias, in human relations, emotional resonance often trumps intellectual coherence.

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    Ends, Means: Rational Morality

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    1–2 minutes

    Kant insists we treat others—and ourselves—as ends, never merely as means: autonomous agents deserving respect and reason.

    Persuasion must honor rationality, not manipulate it. To treat the moral agent (individual will) as an end, not merely a means to be bent to your will.

    Yet, this moral vision rests on an assumption: that humans are rational. Egoists and emotivists reject this, seeing action as rooted not in duty (principle), but in desire.

    Morality, then, becomes a choice—an aspiration rather than a given. Kant’s ethic remains noble, but perhaps aspirational, revealing the disjunction between how we should act and why we do.