Cause and Effect

The more I think about it, the more I realize that playing mental chess of cause and effect can potentially be very destructive. We're hard-wired to do it, that much is for sure. Our minds silently chug away, attributing causes to the events that ripple through our lives. The process is instinctive, but it can be very irrational also - sometimes, it might be outright idiotic if you sit down to think about it.

A form of the irrationality of cause and effect is superstition. I walk under a ladder and I think I'm going to have bad luck. Then something bad does wind up happening - even if it's a week later, I immediately attribute it to the damn ladder. In my mind, that connection works, it's perfect, it fits. Except that it's completely irrational and makes no sense whatsoever.

Superstition is just one example - in our everyday lives, there are much more mundane examples of the cause and effect illusion in play. Everyone is under their own unique spell under this illusion. I think there's nothing 'wrong' with this - it's as normal as anything else. The only point at which one should force rationalization to take over is when the effect gives one either an extreme high or an extreme low. If a hot girl winks at me, I could attribute this to a cause: that she's madly in love with me. I could be in ecstacy for days on end, planning our future together. Before things get this out of hand, I have to enforce the rationality that a) I've never even met the girl before and b) it was mighty windy that day and she probably had something in her eye.

If I weren't feeling lazy right now, I could make a similar example for the low. But hopefully, you get my drift. The example I gave is pretty silly, but I think if you look closely, you might see examples in your life where the cause and effect reflex is not so silly. Hell, it might even be a bit dire. Maybe you'll decide it's time you've gotten tired of playing by it's irrational rules, and that it's time for some plain, clean rationality.

Good for you if you do.