Rationality...

Most people think they act rationally most of the time. Yet when you see them on the road driving a car, you can seriously doubt they are acting rationally. The fact is that several scientific research have concluded that rationality is not the normal operating mode of the human brain. It turns out that the decision making process is influenced by emotions and a bit of experience. To act rationally would mean that the brain has access to a vast amount of accurate data relevant to the situation. Instead, we make a judgment based on what we know, and the feelings of the moment. This is far from rationality. What then are the consequences of this? Just look around and you will see people that are obese because they feed themselves according to what they desire instead of what their body actually needs. You will see people gambling their life saving away because they "feel" they will beat the system instead of considering the statistical odds. You will see people voting for complete assholes instead of looking at past track records of political parties.

I'm very pessimistic concerning the future of a race that will decide it's ultimate fate based on the irrational thinking that rules these days. The vast majority of people cast their votes based on nothing but emotional impressions they get from TV, and that not rational. Of course this points to the mental state of the whole civilisation, which is about the same anywhere on this planet.

Only very few people will place rational thinking before personal gain and greed. In their head, it all make sense, but only to themselves. To hell with the human race, as long as I'm making gazillions of dollars.

It's the default mode of operation of the brain, to gather information, analyse it, then draw a conclusion... seems innocent enough. What throws a brick in this system is the emotional side of the brain. It colors everything, it steers the decision making process away from the rational conclusion. What results is sometime wonderful, heroic even. But most of the time, the outcome is selfish, greedy and destructif.

Yep!..