What are we fighting for?

Since the beginning of the human race we have witnessed the epic battle between two would be friends that have somehow become adversaries. It isn’t what you are thinking by the way. I’m not referring to some barney between two physical entities like Kane and Abel (See Bible: Genesis I think) nor am I referring to the ancient battle between good and evil… that’s far too long, boring and full of clichés. My thoughts today drifted onto the less well known but equally (if not more) interesting battle between Wisdom and Logic.

I was reminded about this age old battle during a Body Corporate AGM meeting for the town house complex I currently reside in. My case was to allow owners to have dogs (which have been banned for the last 20 years or so); I built up a logical argument and even had supporting scientific evidence to back me up. Needless to say, my science and logic were smashed onto the floor like a delicate package being handled by airport staff at O R Thambo International. I have to admit though, I saw it coming. The moment you present flawless logic to old people they immediately retaliate in Oldskerish (which is basically a mixture of wisdom, senility, experience, stubbornness and gibberish) even if they happen to agree with what you are saying. The oldskerish just slips out, they have as much control over it as they do over their bladders and farts.

So whenever I get a nasty oldskerish reply from an ancient I always keep my cool, I just say to myself “EEbEE one day when you are past your sell by date and all you can do for entertainment is annoy younger folk with your oldskerish and faint smell of pee you’ll look back at all this and smile”. Back to the meeting, I quickly realized that my science and logic would get me nowhere in a discussion where I’m at LEAST 40 years younger than the cars driven by attending members. I simply shrugged and bore the 45 minutes of verbal abuse that followed my short (and widely interrupted) talk on ‘why allowing dogs in our complex would be a good idea’. So I reacted how any young person would after being attacked by an overwhelming torrent of oldskerish...

...I got a dog

You may not realize it but these sorts of clashes between logic and wisdom happen very often. The reason they occur so frequently is that both logic and wisdom are seen as morally correct and favourable traits. A fight between good/right and evil/wrong is easy to call and even easier to take sides and support. When you put one form of good/right against another form of good however, things start getting a bit messy. Both parties tend to defend their beliefs to the grave because both parties are correct in the greater scheme of things. This is how a tiny difference in belief can spark war. Take the endless fighting between Jews, Christians and Muslims for example, take one step back from all the chaos and it becomes clear that all these religions are ON THE SAME SIDE! I’ll leave that topic for another day though.

Cutting a long story short, what I’ve come to realise is that Logic and Wisdom are complementary. People happy to accept one without the other need to work this out before they can progress in a civilized manner that won’t end up with one party warring with another over the resting position of a toilet seat for example. Once the two forces unite, you get something amazing,

…you get intelligence. Or simply, the ability to place things into the correct context.

Something so simple yet so evidently lacking in modern society. If you have no clear goal in life this would be a good start. Dedicate the rest of your days towards putting things into the right place and most of all, understanding yourself and what you do.

What say you?