“Where there’s no emotion, there’s no motive for violence.”
“You Earth people glorified organized violence for forty centuries. But you imprison those who employ it privately.”
“On my planet, to rest is to rest — to cease using energy. To me, it is quite illogical to run up and down on green grass, using energy, instead of saving it.”
McCoy: Life and death are seldom logical.
Spock: But attaining a desired goal always is.
McCoy: Respect is a rational process. Didn’t it ever occur to you that they might react emotionally…with anger?
Spock: Doctor, I am not responsible for their unpredictability.
McCoy: They were perfectly predictable, to anyone with feeling.
Spock: I realize that command does have its fascination, even under circumstances such as these, but I neither enjoy the idea of command nor am I frightened of it. It simply exists, and I will do whatever logically needs to be done.
Spock: I’m frequently appalled by the low regard you Earthmen have for life.
Spock: There are always alternatives.
Spock: ‘Fascinating’ is a word I use for the unexpected.
Spock: I object to intellect without discipline; I object to power without constructive purpose.
Two perspectives. if all people behaved as Vulcans do Spock would be correct. The problem is, Spock does not look beyond his own view. he sees that erradicating emotions or rather surpressing them would benifit humanity.
He obviously did not study human pyschology. Suppressed emotions cause problems. To try to make logical choice while trying to supress heady emotions is pretty much like stepping on the gas while stepping on the brakes. Alot smoke and dust but, no real successfull motion.
Now a good leader or anyone really can learn to direct their emotions and use them to help make logical choices. But to negate these tools totally, hinders a human, not aid them.
The Vulcan logic fails to take in to account that each being has different tools to be successful and that each being must follow its own path without forced interference, thus the Prime Directive.
What if I think emotions and instincts are a form of dogma?
What if I think life is a form of compulsive and meaningless sex?
What if I think that “logic” is just a more complex form of emotion?
Then what?
(edit: Yes, your last statement was correct. Emotions are so dogmatic, that they will attack what stands in their way, just like life will fight to live. It’s dogma… Force without question.)
Dan~ - How does this square with what you have said: that the manner in which we express emotions is (largely) the result of socialisation? That perhaps the emotions themselves are authentic, but that we learn the ways we express them, or when we express them, or when we don’t, or to whom we express them?
krossie, how has your life been?
I’d estimated, that you have a vital spirit, and will almost almost always fair well, as your life keeps on slowly changing.
I’m in good form Dan~ all tings considered - had some lurve setbacks well a major one last June that I’m recovering from very slowly and badly (almost as if I don’t want to recover!) -but maybe it’s all useful experience as time moves on - I hope…
Hmmm I think your “estimate” is quite on the ball - how did you figure that out
What you think becomes a barrier to what is. Thinking something without full exploration of the subject, then trying to foist your belief upon others without the exploration is illogical. Without the apple there is no seed.
I never got why being supremely logical made spock so dour. You’d think he’d be acutely aware of the ridiculousness of being serious about anything. And you’d think he’d be especially aware of the ridiculousness of the original star trek series. why wasn’t he laughing his arse off all the time. I don’t get it?
Besides that I don’t why the vulcans saw suppression of emotion as a good thing. How boring.
