Rational and Emotional Responsibility

[encode_decode]

We should be responsible for our emotions. Being responsible for our emotional state requires rationality.

@Robert C. Solomon

“I didn’t mean it; I didn’t know what I was doing. I acted without thinking; I acted irrationally. I was emotionally upset.” How often we hear that! And, without attempting a refutation, we sense its falsity, the hollow desperation that accompanies a feeble and halfhearted excuse. “I was emotionally upset”; that is the touchstone of a cop-out plea of momentary insanity.

What do you think?

I think if we are responsible and exercise caution when it comes to our own self serving interests that we would not have to lie our way out of situations. Happiness, gratefulness and justice are things that should drive us in life. These things to me require rationality based on our history and what we have learnt . . . analyzing the future more carefully instead of just assuming something is a good idea because we have a gut feeling about it.

Or indeed lashing out just because we have no rational control over our emotional state . . .

[WendyDarling]

Happiness, gratefulness and justice are things that should drive us in life.

Ah, but these are the linchpins of our selfishness, it’s all about my happiness, my gratefulness (cater to me so I am thankful), and my justice without the inclusion of any one else, it’s all about me!

[encode_decode]

WendyDarling

@WendyDarling

Happiness, gratefulness and justice are things that should drive us in life.

Ah, but these are the linchpins of our selfishness, it’s all about my happiness, my gratefulness (cater to me so I am thankful), and my justice without the inclusion of any one else, it’s all about me!

So don’t take this the wrong way - sometimes I purpose to be brutal with my questioning without the intention to offend. Are you saying that we should not be happy, grateful and seek justice?

I don’t believe you think it is all about you - am I correct?

[WendyDarling]

I don’t personally, but many who live in their bubbles do.

[encode_decode]

@WendyDarling

I don’t personally, but many who live in their bubbles do.

So we should be happy and grateful then?

I agree most people are in a bubble of self serving interest - I think they are consuming who they are at the same time - or who they were meant to be.

[WendyDarling]

Not at the expense of others and when I say that, I mean be responsibly happy and grateful that not you alone benefit from life.
One is a lonely number.

[encode_decode]

@WendyDarling

Not at the expense of others and when I say that, I mean be responsibly happy and grateful that not you alone benefit from life.
One is a lonely number.

Ah ha . . . yes I agree.

What about justice? What are your brief thoughts on that?

[WendyDarling]

Justice is a tricky one. If everyone shared their goodness, we wouldn’t need justice.

[encode_decode]

We should be responsible for our emotions. Being responsible for our emotional state requires rationality.

Should we be responsible for our emotional state?

[James_S_Saint]

@encode_decode

We should be responsible for our emotions. Being responsible for our emotional state requires rationality.

Should we be responsible for our emotional state?

So you are suggesting that we “should be” rational in our behavior?

[encode_decode]

@James S Saint

So you are suggesting that we “should be” rational in our behavior?

I am suggesting that by being rational we can control our emotional state. This requires consistency of behavior.

[encode_decode]

I should have added the bit about responsibility.

[encode_decode]

We are responsible for our emotions and rationality. Socially and individually.

[James_S_Saint]

@encode_decode

@James S Saint

So you are suggesting that we “should be” rational in our behavior?

I am suggesting that by being rational we can control our emotional state. This requires consistency of behavior.

Being rational IS being in “control” of our emoting.

If not in control of one’s emoting, one is not being rational. To be rational is to intentionally ration one’s actions toward a chosen goal. But very many, especially women, dislike the notion that people should be rational. They sense a threat in having to stick to a plan, to commit. Many modern feminized males are similar.

Being “responsible” means being “response-able”. If one is not already rational, one is not response-able, but rather merely the consequence of environmentally controlled emoting - a programmed bit of social mass dust.

[encode_decode]

James

OK - I like it - let me get back to you on that.

I would also appreciate your thoughts on this post about wisdom.

No obligation.

[Arcturus_Descending]

@WendyDarling

Happiness, gratefulness and justice are things that should drive us in life.

Ah, but these are the linchpins of our selfishness, it’s all about my happiness, my gratefulness (cater to me so I am thankful), and my justice without the inclusion of any one else, it’s all about me!

Wendy,

You seem to be looking at this in a topsy-turvy way. This is not necessarily a hedonist or narcissistic attitude. That would just depend on the individual.

Why is a desire that we be happy considered selfishness? That’s a fundamental necessity of all humans.
Doesn’t personal happiness contribute to our survival?
What is wrong and selfish in that?
Why do some commit suicide?

How does pessimism and a woe-is-me attitude contribute to our survival?
How does that even contribute to the happiness of those around us?
The vampire-like person sucks out the very spirit, strength and happiness of another.

Why is gratefulness or gratitude considered to be selfish?
In what way can that kind of consciousness and realization (gratitude) help us? and others?
Gratitude is capable of causing great joy. That in turn can be very contagious and affect the well-being of others.

It’s like Mercy

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

True justice, real justice, would by necessity extend out to others.

How just is it to extend our unhappiness, our lack of gratitude and injustice on others?

The Golden Rule ~ to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
If we know the true value of happiness, gratefulness and justice and how we are affected/effected by those things, then we would have no problem adhering to the Golden Rule.

[Arcturus_Descending]

ditto

[Arcturus_Descending]

James wrote:

But very many, especially women, dislike the notion that people should be rational.

BIAS ALERT! BIAS ALERT!

So just what are you saying here? That women particularly enjoy being irrational and enjoy the irrationality of others, James?
Are you saying that women actually ENJOY being irrational?
They consciously go out of their way to be this way?
Are you saying, for instance, that they enjoy the irrationality that comes with being abused by their husbands?

Granted, there are times when All The World Becomes a Stage and we the players/the actors, men and women ALIKE, both the irrational and the rational, act out, express our selves, our beings, our human experiences, in the moments, in such tragic, absurd and comical ways.
No one is immune to this.

I hear it said that the natures of women are, for the most part, to be more feeling, to rule with their hearts. This is the way in which we are basically hard-wired.
I kind of intuit though that there needs to be a middle path followed insofar as this goes.
At the same time, there are circumstances/situations when the head needs to rule the heart and at other times, the heart needs to rule the head. And at others time, both need to be at an even keel with one another.

I don’t think that any poll taken could ever be real proof of WHAT gender is less rational - men or women.
Take a look, not that you actually need to, but take a look at all of the so-called rational posts in here which have been created by men? lol
Would you say that men enjoy being irrational, James?

I wonder what the ratio is between the men who are in prisons for their irrationality and women for theirs.

It is all a process. Some who value reason above all things need to learn to live with more heart (which is human) and those who value feeling above all, need to learn to live with more reason (which is also human). I don’t think that we were all given the same gifts and opportunities at birth.
Too much of ANY one over the other leads to a mental unbalance

[Arcturus_Descending]

@encode_decode

@James S Saint

So you are suggesting that we “should be” rational in our behavior?

I am suggesting that by being rational we can control our emotional state. This requires consistency of behavior.

At all times? Is it possible that when someone is too rational, at all times, they may become highly irrational, given the right or ought I to say, wrong set of circumstances?

Do you think that a highly rational person at times needs a breather from the rational - needs to allow him/her self at times to just let go and allow feeling to come into play?

At the same time, I don’t mean to suggest that a highly rational person is a non-feeling person.
Can they be? I don’t know.

Oh, I can’t forget my own mandate to look to the individual.

[encode_decode]

Arcturus Descending

Does one actually have to look happy on the outside to actually be happy on the inside?

@Arcturus Descending

@encode_decode

@James S Saint

So you are suggesting that we “should be” rational in our behavior?

I am suggesting that by being rational we can control our emotional state. This requires consistency of behavior.

At all times? Is it possible that when someone is too rational, at all times, they may become highly irrational, given the right or ought I to say, wrong set of circumstances?

I believe more than ninety five percent of the time we can maintain a calm state through consistency of behavior. So maybe not all the time. But at no time do I see emotions as an excuse for insanity - even in the court room.

@Arcturus Descending

Do you think that a highly rational person at times needs a breather from the rational - needs to allow him/her self at times to just let go and allow feeling to come into play?

Yes I do as a matter of fact. I believe one should let there imagination run wild - this is healthy for invention and the arts too.

@Arcturus Descending

At the same time, I don’t mean to suggest that a highly rational person is a non-feeling person.
Can they be? I don’t know.

That state left over when you believe that you are void of emotion I am certain is still an emotional state and you are in fact deluding yourself to believe that you could ever be void of emotion and still remain as you were meant to be - this could be argued - but what would you be arguing the case of? Perhaps your desire to be a robot - perhaps a much more complex form of life than a single celled organism devoid of emotion. Ask yourself then what is your life without emotion - without fear - without happiness - do you honestly think that emotion is not an advanced form of stimulus? You have to dig deep for the answers - not rely on what you have learnt but add to it.

@Arcturus Descending

Oh, I can’t forget my own mandate to look to the individual.

What do you mean by this?