You are a supreme leader in "Brave New World" attempting to persuader readers to understand the necessity of emotions and their value in human life - convince them with examples and reason that more emotion is better.
- refugee camps and charity work
- they keep wars limited
- offer challenges…./ ma us feel the need for advancement (motivation etc)
- at a personal level: communication
- counter example: autism article/response
Emotions form the foundation of our thought, our perception, and most importantly our logic and "common sense." Human emotions in my opinion, with no doubt have been the reason for our advancement. What sort of a world would we live in if emotion did not exist. In what way do emotions specifically better the human race?
Lets take charity work as an example. We build refugee camps and make other attempts to help those who are less fortunate than us. Due to the existence of positive emotions of compassion and caring, people who have the ability often work towards making other people's lives better by building refugee camps for example; they offer shelter and protection to a great extent, for people who need it more than anything in the world.
Also, taking war as an example for the benefits of emotion; it is our emotions that led previous world leaders to try and develop some sort of "just war theory" even when it comes to warfare. World War one is one of the few examples of a total war…otherwise, most wars are usually fought on scales of limited wars, that limit some sort of factor such as geographical location or weapons used. For example, there are some chemicals such as white phosphorus whose use in wars is considered a violation of human rights…therefore restricting governments from their use. If all wars could escalate to total wars, there would be serious damage around the world both in terms off loss of life and human rights violations, but also in terms of infrastructure, economy and social welfare in general.
Furthermore, taking a more abstract approach to the issue, it is due to our emotions that we feel compelled to challenge ourselves. Motivation, drive, desire and willpower are all emotions that make us want to do better and give us the needed inclination to advance. If we look at technological advancements starting from the 20th century, I would say that these emotions of inspiration and inducement have bettered our lives in ways we could never before imagine.
Also, I think that funny enough, emotions are actually the foundation of our logic and reasoning. There exists something within us that gives us the "logic" to "think without thinking" somehow, we have some sort of instinct that guides us through situations in which we have no time to think about our actions, i think this is the way that humans adapted and survived since the earliest of times. Emotions of fear for example, send waves from our brain to receptors in our body, and somehow seem to guide us through decisions and situations. A recent concept of much interest to psychologists and authors is the way in which our subconscious brain encompasses our emotions, the idea of emotional intelligence.
Furthermore, at a personal level, emotions help us communicate with each other. People with similar emotions at a time often feel connected. Our emotions are the bond that ties us all together in some way. It helps us understand each other and surprisingly decrease our need to think hard about things that seem so simple and straightforward to us simply because of our emotions.
This idea can be further developed through examining a counter example. Our emotions help us develop the basic instincts that have nothing to do with our conscious brain, that make communication a natural process. Autistic people have to work out a separate 'translation code" for every new person they meet; responding appropriately to social interactions is not a natural process.
Our emotions also help us understand each other, and ourselves, as well as to communicate with others. It is due to emotions, that others can understand subtle emotional cues, such as a change in our tone of voice to indicate disturbance for example.
Grandin writes about how it was through her experiences only that she learned that certain social behaviors can make people angry; for most of us, we do not need to learn these things by doing; our emotions give us some inherent tendency that makes our lives so much easier if you think about it!
It is true that perhaps autistic people are much more logical; but to what extent can they put that logic and sense to use, do they have the necessary skills? I think that our emotions sometimes do get the best of us, can can blind our judgment; or cause us to act irrationally. But somehow, I think that at the same time, they give us a feeling of safety and of ease of interaction. Emotions connect us to each other; we do not feel alone, it is easier for us to establish connections to people, places and events that eventually build up our character and perception in life...it is through these experiences and relationships that we form who we are.