A Sense of Whimsy
Hello, I am back… let’s get into it.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (who has an absurd mustache) talks at length in his book “Twilight of the Idols” about how Socrates, and Greek Philosophy as a whole, are blinded by rationality. At face value, it is an argument that doesn't seem to make much sense. How can rationality be bad? Rationality can, in most cases, be described as a synonym for smart, and smart, in most cases, can be described as a synonym for good. Rationality can almost be described as good.
It took some time for me to truly understand how people can be “blinded by rationality”, but I came across a situation where something rational would not be the best choice. Let me do my best to explain. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, and I currently work from home, and my desk is in my bedroom. My apartment has a large closet (with a window) that I essentially do not use. One day, I realized that my bed would fit perfectly into this closet. At face value, this would make sense. It would allow my bedroom to be used entirely as an office, and create some separation between where I work and where I sleep. Essentially, moving my bed into my closet would be rational. Now, you can probably see how moving a bed into the closet is a bad idea. Which is why I did not do it, but I hope you get the point of what I am trying to get across. Just because something makes sense doesn't mean that it makes sense.
Life is a balancing act between rationality and whimsy (whimsy being on the other end of the spectrum). Pure whimsy is chaos. Pure rationality is mechanical and lacks the true beauty of life. Ideally, rationality and whimsy should have a yin and yang type of balancing relationship where they exist in concert with each other. Rationality allows you to indulge in sustainable whimsy.