We live in a time in which calculations, logic, optimisation, AI, the Internet are key for our society: From defense, to health, from education to travel, but are we really made of this? Should we base our level of accomplishment, well-being, usefulness, reliability on those parameters? Our articles are indeed ranked, in this regard you can say: "Yes!" - and the answer will be quite trivial. Well, I can live with that! But I am not sure my reaction should be the major matter of your concern.
Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they're all a projection of you.
- Deepak Chopra -
Let me ask this though: Can we found human interactions on logic? Suppose you see someone dancing. What you can infer just from observation? Maybe this person is really joyful, isn’t it? However, as you get close to the music, getting angry for the loud sound in the room, you discover indeed the object of your observation coming from a different cultural background. You stare at them trying to pick the secret of their immense joy – while controlling your instinct to argue for the high volume. They decide then to stop this frenetic activity and come to you, to ask what is making you invest precious minutes of your life in watching the show. And as the interaction goes on, the two of you get involved in a dialectic interchange who reveals the following: They were at the pick of their sadness, dancing not to lie in tears, as was indeed taught to them.
What for a revelation! A behavioural pattern that in your society is index of happiness, shifted of meaning to testify sadness, the exact negation of it! - and then you went buy a book in anthropology or similia. Look what a single dialogue has made of you and what a wonderful piece of knowledge you have acquired! Incredible!
Your logic was wrong and it would have stayed wrong if not corrected by the intervention of the man, who maybe curious of being stared and willing to tell you the real causes of its movements, decided to start a conversation. What courage he had! What bravery! Of course, you did half of the work, by just listening at them instead of ignoring them. Well done! You were open, you said yes, instead of just denying any possibility. You fought against your fear - as yes, you were in reality really scared. Your face was speaking volumes, but the man came to you anyways, without judging.
This should be the way we all work, connect with humans, discuss ideas, ponder them, compare visions and philosophies, read. Humanities and calculations, intuition and logic, creativity and formalisation.
The mixture of them is the way, not the exclusion of one in favour of the other: To be curious about what is different from you, to ask questions, to debate, to contrast, to accept and not to put a tag with the word ‘enemy’ on top of each single thing that looks weird, unusual, foreign.
- Ask, do not assume!
One may be really really wrong and end up inflicting pain, while convinced of provoking relief.
See You next time! I hope you started well this new year 2023!
Federica
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