Intuition and insights are generally not trusted to offer solutions to our most pressing problems. Put another way, we don’t acknowledge that our “right” brain should have a central role in defining our worldview. Perhaps we should revisit the relative roles played by the heart vs. the head.
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, referring to the coronavirus, reveals the danger of having pride in our intellect. “It has exposed how much of Western society … is permeated with influential people who have deluded themselves into thinking that their ability to manipulate words, images and sounds gives them the ability to control reality itself.”[i]
Frank Bruni, also a New York Times columnist, addressing the same challenge to the Global Village, suggests that truth and beauty are related. “The answers will sooner come from history, philosophy and literature than from drug companies, social media and outer space. Put another way, whom do you trust: Pfizer, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Plato and Jane Austen? It’s not a close call.”[ii]
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Supplemental Reading: Intuition and Intellect, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
#67 Oh My Aching Head!
[i] Douthat, Ross. “Why the Coronavirus is Winning.” The New York Times Sunday Review. June 7, 2020, p. 11.
[ii] Bruni, Frank. “Is This the End of College as We Knew It? The New York Times. June 7, 2020, p. 7.
