Logic’s devolution and humanities fate

A new study strongly suggests that logical reasoning in humans is innate and appears as early as 12 months after birth - before the development of language.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/babies-think-logically-before-they-can-talk/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mind&utm_content=link&utm_term=2018-03-21_featured-this-week 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/03/17/can-a-1-year-old-reason-like-a-scientist-yes-new-research-concludes/?utm_term=.787aac851adb  

Researchers believe this ‘logic ability’ “might be continuous over development.” I don’t believe them.  There is far more evidence in the world today that the adult mind’s political and religious world views are abandoning logic.  Logic may in fact be on the edge of extinction, and us with it. To whatever degree logic survives in the unscientific regions of our brain, it is now used to defend conspiracy theories or advocate for government policies and religious behaviors that largely ignore the world as it really is.  Or, the ‘mental world vs real world’ dilemma theory of extinction’.

The first offering of evidence is the fact that more teenagers die today from texting while driving than from driving while drinking and school shootings combined.  My next offering is that adults continue to believe that an increased military budget and constructing border walls will makes us safer.  And, our ‘national sovereignty’ is more useful in maintaining our freedom and security than the “self-evident” “truths” illuminated in our Declaration of Independence.  More condemning evidence is our emotional craving to feel good instead of being good. This powerful urge makes us avoid people we disagree with, take opioids, over eat, smoke, avoid exercise, hire divorce lawyers, and sing patriotic songs that justify war and the killing of innocent people by labeling them ‘collateral damage’.

My hypothesis is that pure logic in the mind only exists until adolescence.  It then gets muddied rapidly as hormones and our culture of hypocrisy sadly infects the mind and increasingly interferes with its original function and extraordinary capacity for ‘real world’ problem solving.  As this mental infection progresses the mind increasingly relies on emotions to dictate its perceived reality.  This gradually betrays the mind’s original function of protecting the body’s health, life, close relatives, greater tribe, and the environment upon which all these lives depend.

The final symptom of this contagion is the mind’s full devotion to defending its own beliefs, values, and principles. Literally, defending them to the death, and sometimes justifying murder. These lethal values, beliefs, and principles are often invented by other minds or learned from another so called ‘free’, irresponsible and priority-distracted culture. The minds can even be validated with million dollar contracts. Some CEO’s, star athletes or winning coaches might come to mind.   These priority delusional cultural environments can have few real world consequences -- until it is too late. 

The predicament is that the mind’s power is virtually supreme.  It cannot be reasoned with.  Its reality is dictated by its existing beliefs which it defends at all costs. This ‘hard headedness’ then determines the body’s emotions and reactions to perceived threats or opportunities -- creating a perpetually harmful positive feedback loop.  If the mind comes in contact with a belief it dislikes, it feels threatened and reacts accordingly. If another mind agrees with it then both minds are validated, leading to an emotionally rewarding feedback loop -- and a society at great risk.  

Our only salvation (a reliable defense against this self-inflicted cultural insanity) is recognizing who we really are.  First, we are NOT our mind. That’s just a voice we have in our head that won’t shut up. We may believe we are special being an American - yet draw an unconscious division between being a north, south or central American.  Or, being a U.S. citizen makes you more valuable than someone only possessing a Green card.

In reality we are human. We might be white, black, male, female, or somewhere in between but we have forgotten that our mind likes grouping things. And, we may never have learned (or intentionally forgot) the profound survival value of genetic diversity.  In reality the greatest threat throughout most of human history was not another tribe or sabretooth tigers. It was infectious diseases. These remain a primary threat today. Our biosecurity is increasingly at risk due to our mind’s capacity to create biological weapons capable of targeting specific genetic profiles, and then thinking they need to be eliminated. This is a monstrous abuse of the human mind’s capacity and its original function of protecting human life. If you wrestle enough with this concept the solution becomes self-evident.  Re-purpose the mind. Use it to look for solutions that unite instead of divide. Use it, instead of it using you.

Last year a young Marylander won an Olympic Gold medal in wrestling. He was the world’s first ever 19 year old heavy weight champion. And he was smaller than most he wrestled. He soundly defeated the best that Iran, Russia and all other nations had to offer.  It wasn’t because he was American, white, or genetically blessed. I’m convinced it was his father’s coaching advice to become “the landlord of your mind”. Kyle Snyder committed himself to using his mind to become the best, regardless of what his mind and body was telling him during intense training.

Until we commit ourselves to being the best humans we can be and devote ourselves to managing a world where the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – and “justice for all” – are our highest priorities, we will continue a downward spiral of emotionally driven reactions that fail any logical analysis. The logic of abiding by the “Self-evident” “Truths” offered in our Declaration of Independence continues to hold profound promise. Why? They are based on the “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” (it’s okay to feel emotional about these).  Our survival depends on codifying these collectively into our mental constitution, our U.S. Constitution, and the U.N. Charter.

Our minds are free to believe anything.  Literally, anything! But our bodies, brains, spirit, and our life preserving environment will never be free of the lethal consequences of actions or indecisions determined by flawed mental beliefs.

The infant logic study referred to initially involved 144 babies between 12 and 19 months.  They were healthy babies. While some people may frown on experimenting with babies, where is the logic in ignoring/allowing well over 10,000 babies dying every DAY from easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases?  And, at the same time ignoring/allowing kleptocrats, drug cartels, and wealthy capitalists who have stashed over $32 trillion in offshore accounts to avoid taxes.

Wise adults surviving the chaos and mass casualties of World War II, atomic vaporization, and a government-led genocide used their logic to write a declaration to prevent repeats of these unthinkable horrors.  Unfortunately, those in political power driven by emotional reasoning gave the new global institution (the UN) zero power to enforce the declaration of human rights. The comprehensive logic of this Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains today (exactly 70 years later) in the form of 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030.  Freezing and seizing some of the trillions stashed in offshore accounts could virtually enforce these unalienable rights if devoted to them. And no new taxes would be needed on anyone.  

Better late than never such an effort could provide a comprehensive approach to preventing the destructive global forces we increasingly face today.  Things change. Emotions change. Minds should too.  Logic now dictates that if we don’t change our minds, we may yet go the way of the dinosaur. Think about it.