Being able to reason takes effort

By Letter to the Editor on October 28, 2021.

Editor:
I heard of someone refusing to get vaccinated. Reportedly she said, “I refuse to have an experimental medicine jabbed into my body.” So she was not allowed to attend the class. “Experimental medicine?” How can any intelligent person believe in such bogus information! It’s hard to believe, but it is true that they believe the drug produced to get rid of parasites from horses is more effective to prevent COVID-19 than the WHO and the FDA approved vaccines. Why?
Humans are irrational by nature. From many mistakes humanity made in history, by now we must know that it is a big mistake to ignore the fact that people are more often than not moved by emotion not by reason. A few years ago during the Trump presidency, the Guardian Weekly ran an opinion piece titled, “Why facts don’t convince people.” I did not keep the clip, but I remember the main points.
It said that most of us form our opinions from what we hear from our acquaintances, friends, and people we hung around with. They are people we like and their views influence ours. It’s not easy to believe the words of a stranger or those who speak with an accent or who belong to another political party.
Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as saying, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” It is why many Americans do not accept that they were not defeated in the Vietnam War. It was a cease-fire agreement.
Listening to emotion is easy, but to reason takes work.
Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui
Lethbridge