Looking up from his newspaper, my grand old man looked at me
and asked will it not be a paradox to call ourselves a society of reasonable
people. He wasn’t so much as expecting me to answer it as he was thinking
aloud. I wasn’t entire sure what the statement meant. He went back to his
newspaper after that and we haven’t talked of the topic again. I pondered over
the question a few times in the following days, but couldn’t figure out the
essence of it. It made itself clear to me a few days back when I was reading a
book on Hitler. The author in the initial few chapters prods the reader to
comprehend how a relatively modern and civilized society like Germany would not
only allow but also in some cases enthusiastically participate in one of the
worst kind of genocide the world has ever seen. I am usually apprehensive of
such questions, as they invariable are used to find excuses for despicable
acts. But what I realized was that there will always be an answer to such
questions. There will always be a reason or in some case lame excuses, whatever
you call them. They will be discovered and sometimes invented and dished out
with fancy analysis for public consumption. It made me realize the compulsive
need of the modern human to rationalize his actions and behavior. We are
obligated to reason, the absence of which makes us uncomfortable. There in lies
the paradox my grand old man talked about, having a reason but not always being
reasonable.
Common sense may dictate that reasons come before an action
or an idea, but that always isn’t true. Many a times we act and form ideas
instinctively, based on experiences or prejudices, and then retrospectively
form reasons to support our ideas. This retrospective reasoning is far too
common than we realize. Have we not met people who are the first to form
opinions but when approached with a countervailing idea will start
manufacturing reasons right there in front of you. To be fair I have done it
too. My manager had once asked me why I did a particular job in the manner I
did. The real reason was I only knew one way of doing it. But I gave him the
good reason, which was a complex mesh of some related and some unrelated
things. Not entirely convinced he was, but sufficiently confused to leave the
matter at that. Not only are we uncomfortable for not having a reason, we are
also very sensitive to being corrected. So the exercise of making up reasons
don’t stop, we just can’t accept that we were wrong in the first place. There
seems nothing wrong with people who stick to their opinions firmly, but the
flaw with retrospective reasoning is that they are derived from the conclusion
and not the other way round. In such cases no other conclusion is logically possible.
It restricts the ideas and opinions to pre-formed conclusion, based primarily
on intuition. It is like me reviewing a Shah Rukh Khan movie, my verdict even
before it is released: it is useless, don’t bother.
Reasoning, people will tell you, should be based on facts.
This is true but only partly. Reasoning has to be done based on complete facts.
Reasoning based on incomplete facts is equally flawed and in some cases more
dangerous. One may pick and choose facts and events from history to form an
opinion, while completely ignoring facts which counter or are inconsistent with
my preferred opinion. Is it not the tool of most of our demagogue leaders of
past and present. The use of rhetoric with carefully chosen facts to support a
particular position has been a potent weapon in the hands of politicians around
the world. So when one reasons with facts, one also has to make sure he has
enough if not all the facts in place.
I was told in one of the soft skill lectures not to have
assumptions, and then went on to read a book which asked can we have a day without
assuming things. Like assuming that the sun will rise from the east tomorrow.
This is surely taking the argument to absurd level but still it does impress
upon us that assumptions can be made based on enough anecdotal or scientific
evidence. Assumption is required and in some cases essential to move ahead. But
an assumption cannot be your only reason for forming an opinion it has to be
backed up by some fact or evidence. We find people around us all the time for
whom their assumption and perceptions form the basis of their world view. Some
of the worst forms of racism where based on assumptions of God’s choices and
perceived dangers from the other race.
Karl Marx had said years ago that “Reason has always
existed, but not always in reasonable form”. Looking at how much we have
learned from our past mistakes, I think that his words will be true for many
years to come.
