When I was 13, in grade 7, I had the perfect game strategy to get whatever girl I wanted at the time. It was so simple. All you had to do was to stand. Stand somewhere in her proximity. Preferably wearing the latest fashionable shoes (it was the latest trainers then with the graphic on the side). And the latest Axe deodorant (it was called Ego then). I think it was Ego African Amber at the time. From this point, what would happen is she would see me from 50m away, walk up to me, and tell me how she’s completely attracted to me, and thinks I’m irresistibly attractive. Makes complete sense right? I mean, why wouldn’t this possibly work? I was fully convinced that this was a fail-proof strategy. May explain why I got rejected twice that year. (Maybe I should have used Brut spray instead of Axe. I think that’s what all the 13 year old players used at the time. I think that’s what Justin Bieber uses now).
Growing up, I realised that this doesn’t work. A girl is not going to notice you from 50 metres away. She’s not going to walk up to you. And she won’t think you irresistible if she’s never heard you speak. Logic then was very different to logic now.
Something I’ve discovered is that our logic is a function of what we know, what we think we know, what we have experienced, and our interpretation of other people’s experiences. In grade 7, this logic dictated this infallible strategy. 10 years later from grade 7, my logic dictates something else, and 10 years from now, a lot of the conclusions that I make may be very different.
In many Christian circles, I always found that you had a group of singles, who had never been in a relationship, arguing about how God will “send the one” to you. Logic dictated that one day, you’ll have a dream, and you’ll see the person standing in a field of bright sunflowers, with a t-shirt printed in red that reads “THE ONE”. After this, you’ll wake up and see the person walking in the street (who must have had the same dream at this point), whip out your guitar and together start singing “To the Ends of the Earth” by Hillsong. I’m not discounting the possibility of this happening. All I know is that it hasn’t happened to me, or to anyone I know.
I don’t know everything, and I haven’t experienced everything, therefore my logic is going to be flawed. Therefore using logic alone to make conclusive judgements about things is flawed. I’m not saying that things shouldn’t make sense, but sometimes what we deem to be sense is senseless, and what we judge to be nonsense is truth.
This is also why we need other people to bounce ideas off. People who may know more about something than you do. A group of 7 year old kids discussing the merits of a socialist regime vs. a purely capitalist regime may not be beneficial. A former prostitute discussing the merits of the legalisation of prostitution to a group of individuals who don’t know anything about the personal impact of prostitution may be beneficial. (That may be a heavy example. It was the first one that came to mind).
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Also had embarrassing false logic related moments?
Patrick Kayongo 