I’ve always felt a dissonance between how I thought people were motivated and how things actually are.  I want it to be the case where we’re all logical, individual entities and base our actions just on reason alone.  But we seem to act more on instinct rather than carefully deciding what we should do.

Check out this clip from Louie where he gets threatened by someone and decides not to fight, but acts submissive to him.  Logically, why would you risk your safety to stand up to some kid you don’t know, probably won’t see again, and has no real influence on the rest of your life?  I don’t see a real reason to resolve conflicts this way, but there’s something deeper that tells us this is just the way things are.

I’d like to think we’re attracted to someone because of shared interests or because we get along well with them, but the deeper motivation seems to be based on stupid shit like this.  I don’t know how many girls I’ve talked to that say “Well my boyfriend needs to be taller than me.”  What?  In 2011, why does that remotely matter?  I wouldn’t have a problem with this really if we didn’t still hold on to the façade that we are acting rationally.  Maybe the best way around this is to embrace our biology and realize we aren’t adapted to our current way of living, that we really are animals.

I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but evolution is really really really slow.  And I don’t mean for this to sound like I’m complaining, because I don’t think we have much control over this.  Plus, having irrational emotions can help us experience beauty and love, even though we also feel aggression and jealousy, etc…

Anyway, here’s a really good documentary series, The Human Animal.  It gives a perspective on why we do the things that we do, and how close our behavior is to “animals.”  But for now, I’ve gotta go stick my chest out and stare at the next guy who invades my territory.  Come at me, bro.