Dealing with the Irrational Mind

Our vocabulary is filled with words to describe acts of insanity. We call people who commit such acts irrational, unbalanced, crazy, or something even worse.

One of the ironies of life is that irrational people have an advantage over rational people. For example, if a stranger admired your jewelry and asked for that as well as money you would think him irrational and refuse him. But that depends on how unbalanced his thinking may be. If the stranger were a mugger with a gun and threatened your life you wouldn’t argue with him. You would just give him what he wants because you know reason will not change his mind and his aroused anger may cause you to lose your life.

Your position to negotiate depends on just how crazy he is. Your rational thought is “life is more important than money.” The mugger has a rationale also. For him, getting money is worth more than life, at least your life. So he has an advantage depending on the degree of his insanity.

The goal of parents is to take the blank tablet, John Locke’s ‘tabula rasa’ of a child through the maze of conflicting stimuli and successfully maneuver into the world of rational thinking. Every child will sometime throw a temper tantrum. And this is the key; how the parent reacts determines whether he will continue. One of the truest laws of psychology is that successful patterns of behavior repeat themselves. The parent that allows the tantrum to succeed in private will be bullied in public. If punishment isn’t imposed the behavior will become a lifelong pattern.

But the law of repetition works at another level as well. For example the man who has a business serving the community wants repeat customers. If he is dishonest about the cars he sells customers won’t return. His good name is so important that he may be willing to lose money on one deal just to have repeat business.

The mugger relies on the fact that he will never see his victim again. The last thing he wants is to rob the grocery store where he buys food because he has to face those people again. The guy who pursues a one-night stand has no interest in the welfare of his date. In fact, he has no reason not to lie.

It’s ironic that extending a relationship is beneficial in both family and business. The same biblical principle applies in both relationships. What principle is that? I’m glad you asked. It’s called the Golden Rule and it says that a man should love his neighbor as he loves himself (Matthew 22:39). It is further explained that we should treat other men as we want to be treated (Luke 6:31).

The irony may be that it is the foundation for a capitalistic economy as well as for a system of justice that makes a nation great. The extension of contracts through time is the heart of capitalism and of peaceful relationships among nations.

In a free market economy a person who invests when he is young will retire in wealth. A nation that treats other nations with respect and honesty can exist in peace and prosperity.

But the long-term player must penalize bad behavior. If the predator gets away with his crime he will continue to abuse. It is punishment that teaches the child, the criminal or the terrorist the greater gains of the Golden Rule. That is the advantage of the rational mind.

Until next time,