Instinct vs. Intellect

I may make you feel, but I can’t make you think.  Jethro Tull

    Even with our human intellect, we are still influenced by instinct.  Emotions, cravings, and gut feelings are methods used by our DNA and genes to try to control our actions.  Corporations, the news media, and politicians can manipulate these same methods, as well, to influence our behavior.  The freedom to obey our instincts appears to be a political theme.

Instinct is not always good

    We tend to crave sugar because evolutionarily it has been in short supply we needed the calories and energy.  We still tend to crave sugar even when sugar is plentiful.  Corporate leaders take advantage of this instinct by loading up our food with sugar and by selling us products with, for example, high fructose corn syrup, which we crave like sugar, but which we purchase instead of sugar in efforts to lose weight.  One result is that we eat too much sugar, gain weight, and get diabetes.  Ideally, when we crave sugar, we should rationalize that this is just our instinct talking to us and ignore it.  Politicians take advantage of this with big gulp sodas.  Politicians on one side legislate against big gulp sodas for health reasons.  Politicians on another side claim that restricting the sale of big gulp sodas violates our freedoms.  Probably neither side really cares about our health nor our freedoms, but rather the politicians are creating a drama side show to distract from other issues.

    We tend to crave sex because evolutionarily population size has been difficult to maintain and grow.  We still tend to crave sex even though now we are overpopulated.  Corporate leaders take advantage of this instinct for sex by bombarding us with advertisements for products that make us look sexy.  One result is that we are frequently thinking about sex when we should probably be concentrating on other things.  Ideally, when we are thinking about sex, we should rationalize that this is just our instinct talking to us and ignore it.  Politicians take advantage of this instinct with a myriad of sexual issues such as Viagra, birth control, abortion, gay rights, marriage, and family sizes in relation to income taxes.  Emotions in the forms of infatuation, love, jealousy, and rape culture play a part in our instincts influencing procreation.

    Fear, an emotion, is evolutionarily a strong and fast way to react to emergency situations.  We still respond strongly to fear even though we can use our reasoning skills to survive and even though we live in much safer environments than we used to.  Corporate leaders take advantage of the fear instinct to sell guns.  Politicians take advantage of this instinct to promote wars and instigate support for policy.  Induced fear of skin color is an especially pernicious use of emotions for political ends.

    We tend to believe in a higher power apparently because following the leader was an evolutionary survival tactic.  We still as a society have strong faith even though the human intellect allows critical analysis of beliefs.  Corporate leaders take advantage of this instinct by reducing health insurance coverage for employees and saying that it is because of religion.  Politicians take advantage of this instinct by religiously repressing women for political gain.

Devolving back to instinct

    Oddly, as a society, we seem to be moving backwards towards following instincts rather than overcoming instincts with intellect.  Through advertising, corporate leaders do a good job of convincing us to smoke, drink, eat too much sugar, burn too much gasoline, buy too many guns, use tanning booths, and other unhealthy things that hurt ourselves but help corporate profits.  The politicians then use emotions to turn the logic of this around so that any regulation to discourage people from spending money to hurt themselves is called a violation of their freedoms.  I have a freedom to help cigarette company profits by giving myself emphysema.  I have a freedom to help corporate agriculture profits by eating too much sugar, becoming overweight, getting diabetes, etc.  I also have the freedom to see that the corporations and politicians are manipulating my emotions to take my money and make me ill in the process.

    We are still paying in a big way for George Bush’s gut instincts in world affairs while he was President.

Using intellect to examine instinct

    Instinct is not always bad, but it needs to be examined when it does harm.  While self-actualization has been considered to be a desirable objective, this goal changes when we consider that some aspects of our self are not so desirable:  for example, desiring self-actualization so that we can eat all of the sugar that we want, smoke lots of cigarettes, have sex with lots of people, and watch war updates on television.

    It is a problem that it is easier to cater to instincts to smoke, eat sugar, and go to war, than it is to rise above these instincts and reason things out with our intellects.  We should be able to use these thought processes:

• Even though I have a strong natural desire to smoke cigarettes and even though I like the cigarette advertisements, I have to accept the reasoning that when I buy cigarettes it helps the profits of corporate leaders and injures my health.  Therefore, I need to take actions to stop smoking.
• Even though I have a strong natural desire to eat sweet things and I like the sugar high from doing so, I have to accept the reasoning that when I buy sweet things, it helps the profits of corporate leaders and injures my health.  Therefore, I need to take actions to stop smoking.
• Even though I am afraid of other world cultures and I feel good about the idea of striking out against them in a war, I have to accept the reasoning that the gut instinct of a president is not enough of a reason for doing so and that the long term societal economic effects of doing so are detrimental, even though some corporate leaders will benefit monetarily hugely by war.  Therefore, I need to not support a war in this case.
• Even though I love the feeling of having and firing guns and I have a right to them from the Second Amendment, I have to accept the reasoning that guns are sold to me at great profit to corporate leaders and guns endanger my family and friends.  Therefore, I need to realize that indiscriminately stocking up on guns is not necessarily to my benefit.
• Even though I have a strong natural desire to drive a big car and feel the power and safety of a large engine, I have to accept the reasoning that when I burn large amounts of gasoline, it is for the benefit of the profits of corporate leaders and it is detrimental to the environment, jeopardizing our future health and safety.  Therefore, I need to take actions to reduce the amount of gasoline that I am burning.
• Even though I have a strong natural desire to look sexy, I have to realize that a lot of this desire comes from a barrage of advertisements from corporate advertisers seeking to make money from my desire to be attractive.  This situation can also be exploited by politicians with other motives.  Therefore, I need to keep my sexual desires in proper perspective with other issues.
• Even though I feel good sun bathing and using tanning booths and I like the effect of brown skin, I have to realize that tanning is encouraged by corporate leaders for their own profits and is dangerous to my skin.  Therefore, I should reduce this activity even though it feels good.

    A pattern exists in these descriptions.  A strong natural desire, an instinct, exists to do something which after thought is not really in our best interests in modern society to do.  Corporate leaders take advantage of these desires to make profits on us even though the results are unhealthy for us.  Some politicians take further advantage of these situations for their own interests.  When attempts are made to regulate any of these activities then we cry that our freedoms are being violated.  Then, we can be further manipulated to spend our money and react in ways that are detrimental to us.

    Intuition, by the way, is not the same as instinct.  Intuition is an educated guess based on knowledge and experience.  An example of intuition is guessing that a mathematical proof can be obtained.  The intuition shows the way and provides motivation.  However, the details of working out the proof are still accomplished.  Also, Star Wars was a good movie, but let the force be with you falls under instinct, not intellect.

    The corporate media’s role in this discussion is to make a profit by selling advertisements.  The higher the readership, the more ads sold.  The more controversy, the higher the readership, and the more advertisements sold.  The controversy has to be an acceptable kind of controversy, though, so that the controversy does not upset too much the people buying the advertisements.  The types of issues in this document have been acceptable controversies primarily because they are made up.  It is well known that eating too much sugar can cause weight gain and other health problems, and it is well known that corporate leaders put too much sugar in food in order to help sell the food.  The corporate media sets this up as a false controversy pretending that somehow this might be ok, as though the scales of justice are somehow closely balanced on this issue.  This is apparently enough of a justification for the victims, who are predisposed by nature to eat too much sugar, to continue eating the sugar packed food and to blame others for interfering with their gorging.

    Incidentally, some of the issues discussed in this document are CAWTBER fails:  banning big gulps, legislating against women for religious reasons, and going to war for lame reasons.  It is ok if people want to fall for advertisements to overeat, smoke cigarettes, buy too many guns, and basically throw away their money to their own detriment, and call it freedom to do so, but when these people blame another political party for these failures, and influence public policy because of their misguided opinions, it is a fail.

Conclusion

    Even with our human intellect, we are manipulated by our instinctual desires.  Corporations, the news media, and politicians manipulate our emotions to influence us to spend money for their gain and to make political decisions in their favor.  When others call this out, we claim that our freedoms are being violated, allowing us to be further manipulated.  We should be able to recognize this and instead use our intellect to derive better decisions.

Some instincts hurt now,
Others benefit from this.
Let’s think this out more.

Suggested Comments:

What are other instincts that were beneficial in the past but are detrimental now?