Sam Harris Proves, Once Again, That Too Much Rationality Leads to Stupidity
Rationality is determined by outcome not mere logic
When a person like Sam Harris speaks, you want to listen. Not just because he has a lot of wisdom to dish out, but also because he is an outstanding communicator. Sam is a neuroscientist, author, and philosopher who has been a fervent proponent of rationality and consequently an avid opponent of all forms of theism.
Among other things, Sam has been a vehement critic of Former U.S President Donald Trump. And undoubtedly, his “rationality” (as the ordinary person would refer to rationality) goes to sleep when he criticizes religion, free will, and the abhorrent Trump. But, Sam should know more than anyone that we hardly make rational decisions when putting our emotions into matters.
In one episode of his podcast, Making Sense, Sam said,
HE [Trump] is a kind of super stimulus to me. He’s just the most appalling person I can name, Right? Again, honestly, the invidious comparison to someone like Osama Bin Laden are honest. I do not feel the same way about Osama Bin laden. Though I recognize the harms that he caused based on his ideology. And obviously, I have said more than my piece against jihadists. But, Osama bin laden as a person is far more understandable to me and far less reprehensible to me personally, psychologically, than Trump.”
I am sure you would wonder how an intellectual like Sam Harris would make such a horrible remark. Anyone on the earth’s surface knows how much damage groups like the Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin laden, have done in the middle east, the United States, and the peaceful existence of the world.
But an intellectual yet idiots ( like Nassim calls persons like Sam) have a “rational” explanation for horrible killers like bin laden and Hitler — the same people who have taken the lives of millions of innocent people.
His argument alongside his guest on the particular episode of the podcast where he made the above-quoted statement is that Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist. They argued that Trump is a liar who denied the rise of the Covid-19 cases and caused the death of thousands or millions. And they claimed he did that to protect the economy and therefore have a chance for re-election, amongst other things.
Their claims from the show summarized that Trump is irrational and inconsistent. To Sam, if the former president was logical and consistent and still caused the death of as many people as they claimed during the pandemic, he wouldn’t be that much of an asshole. That means to Sam, irrationality, and inconsistency is the worst sin since the fall of Adam and Eve. Little wonder people accuse him of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Does rationality matter?
I have said something concerning our new taste for rationality in my article, “Do we choose irrational beliefs over rational actions?”. In the article, I argued that irrational beliefs are of no consequence in the real world if it leads to rational actions. So does it matter if you are rational and lose your life, or would it matter if you are rational but cause unimaginable damage to people and the world?
Nature has proven to us that she doesn’t want us to be rational in the absolute sense. The most important thing to mother nature is our survival. And that is what should be important to us too.
Osama was rational. He had a logical and arguable reason why he wanted to end western civilization and destroy America. He believed the west has fought and oppressed the Muslim communities and, therefore, should be destroyed. Also, as Sam said in the podcast, Hitler had some virtues and is arguably rational. He was courageous and consistently stood for his obnoxious ideas against communism, parliamentarianism and believed in the superiority of his race, the Aryan race.
The critical question here is the importance of logic, consistency, courage, and the so-called virtues Sam ascribed to these well-known horrible men when the “virtues” were used for destruction.
If rationality does not help in the survival of our species, it is not rationality. And, conversely, if irrationality protects us and helps in our species’ survival, that is rationality as mother nature wants it (she has been right so far). In other words, if Trump is irrational and stupid but hasn’t perpetrated as many atrocities as Hitler and Osama bin laden, he is, therefore, a better person than those people. I don’t care how much logic you know or put into getting your outcome right. As they say, it is time that will tell. And time tells by showing the results of our thinking, ideologies, or actual events. Nothing else makes sense than that straight-up fact.
Rationality is in the outcome of an event, not in the processes and cognitive work we put into the decision-making. So, for example, in economics, a rational decision is supposed to be more efficient after the action has been taken, not as a decision-making process.
Rational people do stupid things
We are supposed to do stupid things and learn from them. That is how we have survived over millions of years. Sam has admitted his error after actively supporting the supposedly “rational” Biden. Unfortunately, this came after Biden recently withdrew U.S aids from Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban taking over the Afgan government.
Sam tweeted he is taking back his words when he quoted an earlier tweet he made when Biden was elected as the president of the United States. Then, he had tweeted “welcoming the adults into the room,” referring to Trump as a child leaving and Biden as the adult coming into the white house.
“Practically eating these words….Syllable by syllable”.
Intellectuals and supposedly rational people also fall for the same bias when letting their emotions get to them. And sometimes, our so-called rationality leads us to say or do very irrational things.
