An idea that is popular, especially in Generation X, is that reason is “the   
   higher function.”   
      
   Response: Prove it. Use that higher function of yours for something   
   productive. Design an engine. Write a program. Invent something.   
      
   I can reason well enough. But I do not believe that there is such a thing as a   
   higher function. I believe that all functions are there for a reason.   
      
   And I know for a fact that the best results are achieved not by using one or   
   the other function at the expense of all others, but by being conversant in   
   all of them.   
      
   Reason, by itself, leads to coldness, cruelty and out-of-touch ineffectuality.   
   Feeling, by itself, leads to mindlessness and self-absorption. But when you   
   know how to do both, you have a use of two modalities that check each other's   
   capacity to do wrong    
   and can synthesize to produce wisdom faster – and fuller – than through   
   either acting alone.   
      
   The people who only observe a social phenomenon have no idea of how it is   
   experienced by the participants. This gets them rightfully accused of   
   coldness, arrogance and uninformed judgmentalism. The people who only   
   experience a social phenomenon have no    
   idea of how it impacts upon the rest of the world. This gets them rightfully   
   accused of ignorance. But a person who both observes and experiences has an   
   integrative perspective that understands both the experience and its external   
   effects.   
      
   In my life, this has translated into experiencing a variety of lifestyles,   
   cultures and mindsets, as well as making sense of all of them. I have done   
   this with mathematics, with literature, with software, with economics, with   
   psychology, with tutoring    
   and menial labor, with mysticism and the esoteric. I have done this with   
   Communism, with liberalism, with Objectivism, with Buddhism, Christianity and   
   the New Age. I have done this with Russia, with different parts of America,   
   with both Melbourne and    
   Queensland. In my relationships, I empathized with a number of very different   
   women and adopted their concerns as my own. I experience something first; I   
   make sense of it later. I continue to do so with all sorts of mentalities   
   every day.   
      
   When I attended the Burningman festival in Nevada, the festival's organizers   
   invited the media covering the event to participate in it. A gen-X friend of   
   mine said that this undermined their objectivity.    
      
   No; it gave them a more complete understanding of the event. They had the   
   perspective of observation; they also had the perspective of the experience.   
   That way they could write a much more insightful analysis than through either   
   experience or observation    
   acting alone.   
      
   This integrative mentality has applications in all sorts of endeavors, from   
   business to journalism to politics to psychology to culture. A person who's   
   been in business will understand other businessmen a lot better than would a   
   person with no such    
   experience; but if he only has an experience of business he has no idea how   
   his activities are experienced by his workers or by the rest of the country. A   
   person who's been raised in Texas will understand other Texans a lot better   
   than would a person who    
   hasn't been raised there; but if he only has their perspective he will not   
   know how Texas is experienced by people in England, Mexico or New York. Merely   
   observational perspective lacks empathy, and merely experiential perspective   
   lacks objectivity. When    
   both are combined, we have the full picture.   
      
   The process is not easy – not at all easy. It requires suspension of   
   disbelief both from one's education and from each successive mentality. This   
   can lead to being regarded a traitor or a whore; it can also lead to   
   confusion, even in some cases    
   insanity. These are all intermediate stages. The final outcome is this: Wisdom.   
   Wisdom that then makes it possible to understand both the experience of each   
   mentality and its effects on their environment and negotiate informed,   
   peaceful solutions that work for each side.   
      
   This can be a way in which peace that works for all sides can be practically   
   implemented. Combining both the understanding of the experience and the   
   reality of its effects on other people, a person possessing an integrative   
   perspective can reach both and    
   advocate to both for either while also confronting each side where they are in   
   the wrong. Neither mere observation nor mere experience can accomplish this;   
   both will be equally prejudiced. But when you have both, you can understand   
   both and put into    
   place workable solutions.   
      
   Academia, media, politics, business and Hollywood all stand to gain a lot from   
   this methodology. As indeed can any number of people in the world.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)