The Rational Approach

Rational vs. Irrational Thought in Society

“Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost

Rational thinking and the concepts that can be brought to fruition can also be destroyed by that of the irrational which in conjunction have not only brought our species to a higher degree of consciousness but also to discern between what is and what is not. Given time, the essence of what it is to be human, that in which what distinguishes us from our ancestral primate cousins, is to a great degree the ability to rationalize what was once mysterious and start to cut the umbilical cord to irrational thought.

There have been for millennia, the dire need to explain and re-explain the world in which we live in. For the better part of our existence the human species have placated their mind with soothe saying ideas that have been culturally passed down through the ages. In some instances, such as the idea that the world was flat and that supernatural forces (this site exemplifies that of the Anthropic Principle, the circular, non sequiter and false dilemma arguments) are at work every day have skewed the mind and that of the masses. It can be said that one can create their own reality simply by the perceptions that the mind and body perceive as true in and of itself. The irrational thought process is the term that can lie in the grey area for those that still have beliefs that are unfounded, and can be mixed and left to ferment as is some potent cocktail of reason when the effect is perceived as rational. Often mystery and irrationality take precedence over one’s own mind to make sense of what is unknown, and for which transpire the need to believe and that of which one is said to exist for real.

Society today, as it was on the onset of modern man, needs to continually strive for the rational for it is the rational that has led our species out of caves and into the realm of the known and not of the mystical and nonsensical musings of the masses. At one time it remained poignant for our species to try and make sense of the world around us, though lacking in basic knowledge irrationality was used to explain common aspects of the world. To a certain degree both were needed to gain our freedom, and escape the irrational jail that most still cling to, as this for some still act as a blanket of protection, warming and coddling them from the cold truth. For it is easier to dismiss something as supernatural than it is to investigate it with an open mind and come to a conclusion based on evidence using rational thought processes. Robert Frost’s poem of the two roads gives us the choice as a metaphor for the rational. For this planet to survive it will take the majority of the populous to take the road less traveled into the realm of the rational and to permanently close the chapter and thus the road to the irrational, for on its path the only destination it presents is doom.

‘Ad Astra’




Joe DeSalme
2-12-10