A Civilization Of The Mindless

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Lately there is such a direction as behavioral economics. Many studies show that humans are not rational creatures, but instead, they are managed by sensory impulses, and they often act to their own detriment. Do you agree with this assertion?

Answer: A human being is a desire to receive and the desire to receive is devoid of logic (rationality). Each one chooses exactly what to enjoy for himself. But apparently my rational choice is contingent on education, habit, and values.

There are also other factors: fear of death, a desire to succeed, and looking good in the eyes of one’s peers in his environment. The survival and sexual instincts play a role that is no less important.

Question: For quite some time, psychologists have attempted to identify those hidden forces that don’t permit us to make rational (logical) decisions.

Answer: Today, on the long road of development, and through our increased power, we see that our entire civilization is completely irrational. It acts destructively towards itself and deliberately chooses the way of suffering.

For example, a mother teaches her child: “Be conciliatory towards others, be quiet, then you will have more friends.”  Whereas he says adamantly: “I don’t want to!” We see  examples of this not only in children. Adults and entire groups of people fight, kill, and destroy each other only out of envy, vanity and a desire to dominate.

It is completely understood that the aspiration to fulfill our inner drives and our irrationality is what manages us and we only employ our intellect later, when it is necessary for getting what we want.

Question: The expression, “Humans are emotional creatures” indicates that he feels the awakening of some desire within him. To what is he sensitive?

Answer: He is sensitive to what he is missing, which is to say, according to what he needs. He pays attention to himself all the time: “What do I want? What kind of desire is aroused in me now obliging me to fulfill it? I am a slave to my desires; they dominate me.”

Question: If intellect only serves the desires, where is wisdom found?

Answer: It is found within the desire. The desire to receive is our nature. This is apparent on all levels. Atoms maintain their form, plants absorb beneficial substances and emit harmful substances, and animals multiply. All of this is the desire to receive and fulfill itself with all kinds of pleasant things according to a program that exists in each individual.

That is how wisdom manifests itself on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. Except in humans, the program for life for all other living creatures cannot be changed. Every cat will eat fish for pleasure, even if it has never tasted it previously. Everything is different with humans. You don’t begin eating Chinese food if you are accumstomed to a Slavic cuisine from childhood. What can be derived from this is that humans undergo a unique program that we call education.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/11/13

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