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What’s actually considered rational human behavior? It could be self-gratification
Published 6:00am Saturday, July 12, 2008“Stop!” she shrieks.
The sound reverberates through the house.
“Ha Ha Ha!” the evil laugh is unmistakable.
Child three is tormenting child four, again.
Why didn’t I stop at two? Oh, wait. That’s not what I wanted to write about this week. Although, at times like these, I do wonder why I wasn’t more interested in population control about 12 years ago.
Back to the yelling. Why can’t they just act rationally? In my head, I rehearse a possible scene in which my children behave rationally. It goes something like this:
“Stop!” says child four, her voice calm and rational.
“I will not stop. I feel I must continue to run around with your iPod for a while longer. Feel free to stop chasing me at any time. I will make sure your iPod is replaced exactly where I found it when I am done,” says child three in an even, measured tone.
“OK. Thanks for the explanation,” responds child four.
If only …
But, we do not, very often, act rationally. At least not as often as we should.
Why is that? Why do we see so much irrational behavior all over the place? It’s not just in childish games like my children play.
Think about the problems many of us have with weight gain. I don’t know what the statistics say about how many of us are overweight, but I know that it’s a huge (pardon the pun) issue.
Rationality says that we ought to eat less and more healthfully. A look at the number of fast food restaurants and their decidedly unhealthful menu items shows that we are not, as a society, inclined to act rationally when it comes to our eating habits.
And exercise? Forget it! Totally irrational. (Full disclosure: Yes. That was me buying ice cream the other day, and I have not been at the Y once this month, yet.)
We all know, too, that gas prices are through the roof. Whether the reasons have to do with speculators or scarce supply and enormous demand doesn’t really matter. We all know that there are specific things we can do to cut down on our usage.
For instance, we could drive more slowly. How simple would that be? And we know that that small, rational act would save lots of gas. Unfortunately, we all seem to be in too big a hurry to act rationally. (Full disclosure, again: Yes. That probably was me driving just a few miles over the speed limit. Shh! Don’t tell the authorities!)
As I think about all the seemingly irrational behavior humans display, I start to wonder if it really is all that irrational.
When we eat junk food and neglect to exercise, we aren’t really thinking about how those actions affect those around us. What about the stress on our healthcare system, the strain on the food supply chain? How about the ultimate negative result, an earlier than usual death and how that would affect our loved ones?
Those aren’t concerns of ours as we eat that ice cream and down that bag of chips. We only seem to be concerned with our immediate self-gratification. We think, “What is good for me?”
In other words, we are acting as egoists, people who think that the universal, ultimate measure of what is good is what is good for themselves.
So, if what is good, or ethical, is what is good for each of us as individuals, perhaps this irrational behavior is actually rational. Maybe it is perfectly good behavior.
Everyone for her/himself. That’s how the world seems, all too often.
And then I hear child three say to child four:
“Hey. Let me help you organize your drawers. It’s so much nicer when your clothes are folded.”
Maybe there is more to the universal good …
I’m going to ponder that over a bowl of ice cream. What do you think?
