I recently watched the Meryl Streep movie about Margaret Thatcher.
I was never a fan of the Iron Lady, but I hated how she was depicted in the film.
While we all grow old, basing a movie around her declining mind just seemed cheap and nasty … but I digress.
There was one line in the movie that struck a chord.
She was at the DR’s and said something like:
“Everyone prefers to feel these days instead of think. Why is no one thinking anymore?”
Now even though I am someone who is a big believer in ‘feelings’, I absolutely got her point.
Or what I think was her point.
Or what I’ve interpreted as her point.
Feelings allow people to be selfish.
Feelings allow people to make excuses.
Feelings allow people to avoid dealing with issues and realities.
Feelings have basically become the best ‘get out of jail card’ there is.
Of course, the issue is ‘thinking’ and ‘feelings’ shouldn’t be mutually exclusive – they should work in parallel so decisions can be more rounded and, to a certain extent, grounded – but that’s not what is happening these days, people use feelings to justify for what they want to do, not what should be done.
“I don’t FEEL like doing it.”
“I don’t FEEL that’s the right thing to do.”
“I don’t FEEL what you’re saying/showing.”
Where’s the thinking gone?
Where’s that little thought process that ensures you consider more than just your personal viewpoint … your personal judgement … your personal perspective?
That teensy little thing that increases the odds that the decisions being made are the right – or should I say, more considered – answer, not just the right answer for you.
Of course it shouldn’t be a case of one or the other and yet that is what is seemingly happening.
Hell, my industry even promotes it.
You’re either RATIONAL or EMOTIONAL.
No you’re not, you’re both.
We are humans, not robots – which means we have both attributes in us. In ALL of us. ALL OF THE TIME.
But this isn’t a post about adland, it’s a post about how the term ‘feelings’ has been hijacked by people to justify acts of pure selfishness.
It’s important to remember feelings go in more than one direction and thinking encourages that to keep happening.