Spring has been with us for at least two months now. We all expected warm days with the scent of the first flowers, the first trips to the sea or to the countryside, in short, the serene and pleasant life that marks the end of winter every year. But is not so.
There is still war in Ukraine, but it almost seems that the images that accompany it are now part of an expected show, there is no longer the tension of the early days, the anguish and concern for an entire country, with all its inhabitants, whose lives have been turned upside down.
HAND
Images no longer translate into violent emotions. But a tennis match is enough, and a Ukrainian tennis player who refuses to shake hands with her Russian opponent, to make us understand that behind the images there are still those who die and those who suffer.
If emotions no longer help us, the logic of reason takes care of making us think, and this leads us to condemn those who attack and to help those who are attacked, bombed and raped.
THE ANXIETY
Then, suddenly, in these mid-May days, everything became highly topical, negative emotions skyrocketed, empathy came back strong and we were worried and filled with anguish for tens of thousands of people overwhelmed by the rains , from the flooding of rivers and the muddy water that has invaded the streets and houses in Romagna and the Marches, and brought the economy and the lives of many Italians to their knees.
THE MUD
There is no need for reason here: emotions, many emotions, capable of activating extraordinary acts of altruism, with people of all ages who take to the streets and help those who have nothing to eat, shovel mud, improvise angels and dedicate themselves totally to the next.
And with song they profess their regional and national identity, which in dramatic moments emerges as an element of aggregation and common defense.
I believe that the dramatic events that this difficult spring brings before our eyes are capable, with great evidence, of explaining to us how man is made up of reason and emotions, of how often the latter prevail, helping us to direct our behaviour, awakening also a moral sense in discriminating right from wrong; however, often when emotions cool down, logic and reasoning are needed to make correct decisions.
As the neurologist Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002, teaches us, fast, intuitive and emotional thinking is based on emotions, slow, reflective, analytical, deductive thinking is based on reason.
THE DECISIONS
Two ways of evaluating information and making decisions that, depending on the circumstances, help us in behavior and decisions. Our mind will understand when it’s time for emotions and when reason must come to our rescue.
*Humanitas Professor of Neurosurgery, Milan
President of the Atena Onlus Foundation, Rome
© breaking latest news