Try is better than Triumph

As we struggle to understand the brain and mind, humanity is introducing processes to make thinking less onerous. And just as the car and processed food left us getting overweight and diabetic, not using our brains as much as we should is leading to their becoming lethargic. The signs of this gather momentum daily. While Covid may have caused physical damage, we see all around us signs of mental stress, attributed, we reasonably assume, to the demanding pace of technological advance, to the instant availability of distressing news and to pressure to compete financially in a world where winning involves defeating the other person.

Many, probably including you, harbour doubts about the value of excessive competition. But when faced with becoming second our instinct and upbringing force us to aim for first. It took over a century to begin to address the consequences of lack of physical exercise. We are doing so now, at least in some parts of the world. We have not begun to handle the risks of underused brains, even as we see the result of them daily. Indeed, we continue to make more rules, more processes and more AI to help us avoid the effort of personal thought.

Does it matter if we don’t think for ourselves? As there are better thinkers, and now impressive ‘autothink’, why should we bother to wrack our brains for solutions a machine can produce in seconds? It’s a compelling question. If we can lead comfortable, hassle-free lives by doing what we are told to do, why will we want the challenge of active intellect?

The human mind has become imbued with the idea that freedom is an attribute of value. Freedom of thought and freedom of action within what is acceptable to society. Democracy harnesses it by allowing citizens to vote for who shall represent them in making the decisions that govern society. “Live and let live” is a sensible tenet for a peaceful world. It is now codified into a massive charter of rights and laws. A whole industry of brains is devoted to redefining it in every particular case so that one side wins and the other loses.

The consequence of this is that some get rich, some poor, some win, some lose, some sick or mentally deranged, some elated to the point of over-confidence for a time. Worse. Some survive, some perish. All become disturbed. Wellness is no result of this process. But human competitiveness demands it. And human competitiveness has brought many benefits to us creatures aiming for control of a world of competing species, rapacious body and mind attackers and vegetation capable of extinguishing whole societies.

We cannot dismiss competition or we shall become jellies.

What then can enable us to retain a reasonably competitive approach without the excess that seems inevitably to accompany it?

A religious faith has worked for a time and still works for many. But in my lifetime many religious faiths that were formerly practised moderately have become as censorious, dogmatic and demanding as any autocratic governance. Good faith genuinely practised seven days a week is still a powerful basis for human harmony. Faith exercised as competitively as a listing on the stock market is a sham.?

So what is the test of faith? Reasonableness. Faith and reason are not contradictory when Faith is expressed as Hope rather than dogma. And Competition is acceptable when it is expressed as Try rather than Triumph.?

Our astute legal nit-picking brains should devote themselves to applying reasonableness to our way of life. It is something autothink is unlikely to master for a while yet.

If humanity can conquer it, we will survive - possibly for a long time.

Worth a Try? I Hope so.

Good morning

John Bittleston

If you have a view about reasonableness please do tell us about it at [email protected], We will treat differing views reasonably, of course.