First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
I saw two ladies in the shop deciding on which fruit to buy. One of them took out a fruit from the bunch, juggled it between her hands while the other lady did the same. After ‘playing’ with six fruits, they chose one. I did not see any science behind their choice. This reminded me of the guy in my university days who when faced with 20 freshly baked loaves of bread picked them up one by one, slap their backs, squeezed them and suddenly chose one. No method. Totally illogical!
Dealing with people means having to relate with how they arrive at conclusions when faced with facts or circumstances. Their conclusions will decide their actions which might cause conflict if you did not arrive at the same conclusion with them even though you have been exposed to the same facts or circumstances. If one of you is being illogical, then appealing to a sense of logic will not work. Rather, an argument ensues that will never be won by either and stress abounds. Many people lack logic in some areas of their lives. They might be logical in their spending habits but throw away all logic in their romantic relationships or they might approach their fitness and nutrition with logic but have illogical work ethics in their professional lives. Dealing with people can be hard but being a hermit is harder. We need to relate to people. I think the first step to dealing with illogical people is to explore how logical we really are. After all, a good start to learning how to deal with rich people is to know how wealthy you are. Know thyself!
I surprise myself with decision making sometimes. I remember once buying a pack of Pepsi cans just because some members of the Real Madrid team were photographed on the packaging. No one drank the cans for weeks but I was happy with the purchase because of the Galacticos.
In many areas and at different times I just choose without real thinking. On average, there is a 50-50 chance that these decisions could turn out right. When the implications of a wrong choice are not really grave on just choices, knowing one’s potential in the illogical department will help us to swiftly pick up this trait in others and thus, not waste time trying to convince them to see the light with a well-structured argument. That would be like playing the violin to the deaf.
We still have to deal with the illogical people, ourselves included. One method of doing this is simply observing how others deal with illogical people for, why reinvent sliced bread?
Case studies in handling the illogical crowd
Ad men are the chief psychological predators of all time and how they construct their adverts tell us what they think of us.
Cars
The best person to explain the workings of the engine of a new car would be a professor of engineering from Harvard. His educated judgement about the car would be valid by virtue of his training. However, ad men just flood your TV with beautiful girls and cars get sold.
Alcohol
Alcohol makes people drunk but everyone in an alcohol advert is well dressed, sober and beautiful. No hang overs or alcoholic liver disease ever in sight. It works.
Ice cream and chocolate
Unlike the body builders who advertise muscle building capsules with huge men, ice cream and chocolate adverts have nobody obese starring. It works and no fat person feels marginalised.
So there it is. Ad men take us for fools.
Entertainment
Our children who have not yet begun to speak watch cartoons of animals pretending to speak. Spiderman sheds his web from his hands despite being covered in a costume. And most astonishing of all, the Incredible Hulk transforms from man to beast in a few seconds ripping off all his clothes save the remnant that protects his modesty (I can almost hear Mr Spock).
Designer items
Why pay £30,000 for a shoe and bag (Mr Spock tell them)?
Politics
Voting charismatic speakers to office and entrusting the health and education of your children to them just because you like how they smile and speak? No one goes to a music concert and hands over their lives to the artists on the strength of a good performance. Applause would suffice. A nice or terrible speech is not related to how well a person is equipped to run a government but hey, the electorate do not think in logical terms, do they?
This leads me to the choice Nigerians have to make between APC and PDP. Even God expects some reasoning to occur from time to time (Isaiah 1:18).
My take on dealing with illogical people is this:
- Run fast from them
- Remember that you too are illogical (sometimes)
- If interaction is unavoidable (close relatives), load them daily with absurd illogical facts and emotionally driven unpredictable behaviours. Let attack be your best form of defence
- Remember what you do when you come across a cute drooling baby who is driven by instinct and not logic. You make stupid noises and silly faces doing your best imitation of a cartoon animal. It usually goes down well.
