How Irrational Is Rational
It must be said that there is no uniform standard of communication, as it all varies with different age groups culture and settings. What may be perfectly normal in one culture would not be viewed as abnormal in another culture. Elderly people tend to demonstrate amore caution when speaking to third parties than teenagers would do.
However, most of our statements and actions may seem negative, but at times its not always necessarily like that. Irrationality is not always negative there is some positive attributes in it. We shall see some instances of irrational behavior as we continue.
I was having a conversation with my friend Carol when all of a sudden she uttered a statement saying thats crazy Then I over heard a group of boys talking in a bus and one of them said the same statement but it meant and sounded different. If we analyze each of this statement they all mean and sound different.
In the first instance when Carol uttered that statement she was in shock. Our conversation was about a mutual friend who committed suicide and was informing her about the tragic news. The conversation was very peaceful at first. She was eager to hearing what I had to say.
When I told her the tragic news, the mood of the conversation changed to great sadness, traumatizing and it was shocking. Her tone of voice was in shock, when she shouted the statement. Her facial expression changed to anger and pain. Our conversation proceeded to many rhetorical questions, tears, anger and pain.
In our second instance when I heard one of the boys using that very same statement he sounded different. Their conversation was about gender in general. As we know boys like topics that involve women thus their conversation was full of enthusiasm, a lot of cheering booing and yelling.
One of them was talking about how women and men go back to their marriages after they have been beaten by their husbands and wives. During the conversation one of the boys made a comment by saying thats crazy His facial expressions changed in manner that showed that, that kind of behavior is stupid and madness. He saw no logic and reasoning for such kind of behavior. To him it was absurd The boys looked eager to discover and talk about more about women. The conversation proceeded to a broader discussion of the topic.
When Carol reacted the way she did her emotions got the best of her, she was too angry and in pain such that she stood pacing around not believing what she just heard. At that moment no one could calm her down leave alone me. She was not in a state to reason with anyone.
The only possible way to bring her back to reality and into her senses was to give her time to cool down. Her response to the news took me by great surprise. Carol looked like the strong type one who could handle any kinds of news. It was obvious this particular news was different. She took it in a very painful way. Some would argue that women are irrational, emotional and reactionary beings. After that kind of reaction from Carol I had to use a different take in relaying the news to her. I didnt want both of us to be weak and start behaving irrationally. Somebody had to be strong. I had to take a rational approach.
Also in the boys conversation before the discussion got wild one of them had to take a rational approach if they wanted to precede peacefuuly with their discussion. As we know boys can always get violent any time anywhere. Usually such topics are gender sensitive. One has to watch what he or she is saying.
You may find that one of the boys is a victim, a sister to the boys or a close friend. It can be anyone we know. There those who may feel insulted because they have good reasons why women and men do what they do. And by questioning that reasoning they feel demeaned. After the statement from one of the boys thats crazy the boys started arguing in the sense that there were others supporting him and others disagreeing with him. This however, led to an argument. The discussion became personal to others.
Somewhere in the middle of the argument one of the boys changed the topic immediately and mentioned. Alicia Keys. This drifted the attention to everyone. Sometimes it is very difficult to try reasoning with boys. As they say boys will always be boys. They can also be emotional and sensitive.
In this two instances of irrationality, if this peoples responses were different perhaps many things would have not happen. If Carol didnt use that statement thats crazy A lot of issues wouldnt have been brought up. If her response was little bit calmer and polite the conversation would have ended well. We would have reasoned well together. She would have taken the news in a calm way. If indeed what she said was true its crazy looking at it at that point of view, the incident would be partially true.
By proving this statement we mean that no one has the right to commit suicide with good or bad reasons. Life is valuable and precious. The victim had to be totally crazy for her to do that.
The victim should at least have talked to a psychologist, a friend or even someone in the family about her problems. Also its sounds crazy in the sense that the victim was not thinking of the consequences, she was not reasoning at all. Its also crazy absurd that Carol had just talked to her the previous day then all over sudden she finds out she died.
When we look at it in another point of view not being crazy it could perhaps mean that the victim had a very good reason of doing what she did. Maybe she had received very bad news about herself like having Aids, being raped, or she saw her parents being killed etc. All this was a reason for her committing suicide as she saw no reason of leaving and she knew no one could help her. Perhaps Carol used a different statement like Oh my God it would have brought different meaning
In the boys conversation if the boy used a different statement like thats unbelievable it would have brought a different effect to their conversation. If we explore more on what he said, the victims are indeed crazy to go back to domestic violent relationships perhaps there is some truth in it.
If we reason in that manner the craziness comes about when someone violates you in any way one should leave or report the incident to the authorities. Going back to such kind of relationships is madness and crazy. There is always a way. Its hard to understand how someone can beat you and you still go back to the same place for further beating, thats why its sounds crazy.
To those boys who disagree they reasoned that people always go back because they believe they can change, or because of love. Others go back because they cant leave their children without both parents they go back for the sake of the children. Everybody has their own reasons for their actions. They will support their facts differently whether we agree with them or not. Our irrational actions tend us to do things that we might regret, hurt others or protect ourselves from society.
Another instance of irrational behavior, I witnessed is when my friend, Debra won a large sum of money. She was called by a presenter on the radio when they gave her the news. All she said was are you kidding Please tell me youre not kidding Are you kidding She looked so happy and exited. She almost collapsed. Before the news, we were just talking about how broke she was, how she needed money so badly and how she had engaged into many competitions but no reply. Surprisingly our conversation was interrupted when her phone rang. We were all eager to know what it was all about. We thought someone was trying to prank her, we thought the news being delivered was bad but after seeing her screaming we knew it was very good news.
Words were just bubbling from her mouth saying that she had just won one million dollars. From what I saw she was not even thinking of what she was saying. She was saying many different statements at the same time. After the phone call conversation she started talking about what she was going to do with the money. If we compared the previous conversation we were having just before the phone rang and our current conversation the mood and tone changed. There was life in our conversation everybody was laughing out aloud, our tone of voices became higher they were no longer dull. It was a very happy moment.
Debra expressed her self in everyway she sang, jumped up and down. She was overwhelmed. Some times our irrational behaviors are usually driven by our emotions, causing us to behave in questionable ways.
According to Sergei Ganini (Irrationality vs. rationality), when we are in an irrational moment the decisions we make are not that concrete they can easily be altered. Like Debra she was already planning on what she was going to do with her money, such plans may easily be altered in the future. He also says that such drastic decisions may also affect our overall perceptions on situations which results in us making mistakes.
Debras reaction to the phone call triggered our responses and thoughts. At first we got confused of her reaction and the response she gave the presenter. Her statement got us thinking a lot. When we try reasoning with her when she said that statement it could perhaps mean many different things to different people. Before Debra shouted with happiness her statement got us thinking someone was trying to prank her and she was not happy with the prank. That is why she said are you kidding. Another instance it could be she couldnt believe what she just heard It was too good to be true thus she thought it was a joke. Also the phone call could be someone giving her bad news perhaps an accident that occurred and since such tragic news are hard to take in she hoped it was a false alarm or a joke
There are situations where the news could be so good that it took her by surprise and all she could think of saying was are you kidding Other instances are where some statement may sound crazy, weird and absurd for one to respond in such a way. Like I said before irrationality is not necessarily negative. In our instance about Debra its positive.
There times being irrational seems very logical at that time, our emotions gets the best of us. We do and say things without reasoning or thinking. As much as it may sound absurd we have logical yet completely irrational moments. At times we are not even aware of our actions we realize them later after we have calmed down when we have gotten used to the news and we are no longer overwhelmed about it.
However, if Debra used perhaps another phrase or attributed a different statement things would have been different. If she took the news calmly all through her telephone conversation we would have thought that something was very wrong somewhere. But her mood, tone sound changed later on. For instance, if Debra used a different statement like I have won Hurrah I have won This would have answered all our questions. We wouldnt have thought twice on what was going on.
Since most people know that Debra had engaged in certain competition it will be obvious for them to know what the conversation was about. Before we were eager to know what was happening. There was suspense everywhere. But in this situation her facial expression, body language and her voice said it all.
In conclusion irrational behavior can come in different forms it can be absurd, weird, crazy, questionable etc. Peoples interests differ from what they believe to be their interests. People will always debate on whats rational and whats not. There situations that may make us behave in rational and others irrational ways. Such situations are what trigger our immediate actions. Our actions may be positive or negative depending on what triggered it. What is rational can also be irrational and vice versa.
It is important to note that each individuals reaction is unique. Peoples reactions also vary according to the different personal circumstances. Some people are known to be much more careful with their utterances. All said and done it is paramount that each individual weighs their words carefully as spoken word ma have far reaching and long lasting consequences on those it is unleashed to. Especially when one is a cross-cultural setting where some phrases may be deeply offensive not just to the onuss it is intended for but those around.
Categories:
0 comments:
Отправить комментарий