Logically Illogical

If we’re really honest about it, we hold opinions about most everything, which makes trying to stay open-minded challenging. Even more trying is the notion that we are greatly affected by what psychiatrist Drew Westen calls “networks of associations: bundles of thoughts, feelings, sounds, images, memories, and emotions that have become linked through experience.” Dr. Westen uses his analysis to explain why reaching out to voters with facts, figures and positions is much less likely to succeed than the well-crafted emotional appeal. Reading this, the left side of my brain was immediately offended. Reason and reasonable discussion seem to me to be the most honest and least manipulative approach one can take, whether putting forward a candidate or trying to solve an intractable problem like the Middle East. And yet the right side of my brain, constantly torn between hope and worry and optimism and anger over the state of affairs here and abroad, understands viscerally that parts of the brain are wildly unpredictable and out of reach, even to their owners. That’s got to frustrate Al Gore.

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