The Revenge of Emotions

Source: Gino Crescoli/Pixabay

For the last half-millennium or so, logic and rationalism have largely ruled the day, as an absurdly compressed summary of Western civilization suggests. Following the creative and scientific revolution of the Renaissance, humans turned their attention to more analytical and quantifiable pursuits in their march for progress. The Industrial Revolution was about making things as efficiently as possible in order to make as much money as possible, and the Information Revolution that followed viewed life through the lens of binary code. Today, it’s our Digital Age that is shaping the contours of society, with data, metrics, and other numbers-based criteria a ubiquitous part of everyday life.

Moneyball in baseball is a prime example. We now know the speed of every ball a pitcher throws and whether it was a fastball (four-seam, two-seam, cutter, or splitter), curveball, slider, or change-up. We’re also told how many pitches have been thrown and given a wide range of statistics regarding the batter he is facing. Many, if not most, other arenas have been Moneyballed. In fact, immediately after this piece is published on LinkedIn, I’ll know in real-time how many people read it (as well as who they work for, their job titles, and where they live).

An obsession with Big Data

Our current adoration of and devotion to statistics symbolizes the historical elevation of all things mathematical. A statistic (rather than a picture) is now worth a thousand words, as it, unlike one’s personal view, is considerable irrefutable proof. From the time-motion studies of the early 20th century to IBM’s Watson’s contemporary techno-parsing of everything from a city’s traffic flow to voting patterns in rural Idaho to the odds of winning the Mega Millions, we’ve come under the spell of numbers. Data profiles have become our primary source of identity, a clear sign of the degree to which our lives are literally being digitized.

Is what could legitimately be considered the quantification of society a good thing? I certainly don’t think so, as I believe the triumph of the numerical has come at a considerable cost. I hold that our obsession with what came to be known as data has over the past few centuries shifted our attention away from more meaningful matters, specifically a greater understanding of the human experience as related to emotions.

While knowing whether Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman is likely to blow another save because his fastball is only 95 miles per hour rather than 100 is perhaps interesting, such information can hardly be said to be making the world a better place or us happier people. We’ve become so focused on precisely measuring human behavior that we’ve lost sight of the bigger picture: i.e., why people do the things they do, based on how they feel. The cart, in short, is now leading the horse.

The proof of our prioritization of the quantitative over the qualitative is, as they say, in the pudding. Around the world, there is a palpable sense of what I call cultural vertigo—feelings of emotional instability as digital technologies erode the physical laws of time and space. Likewise, the encroachment of Big Data into our everyday lives is serving as a powerful force of dehumanization and subsequently weakening our psychic well-being on a large scale. Many of us are experiencing mental health problems, and our therapeutic culture has done little to alleviate the pressures of modern life.

Based on all this, I contend that we’ve spent way too much time developing sophisticated systems of measurement and not nearly enough time addressing the emotional health of individuals and the communities to which they belong. Like most people, I’d venture, I was taught many things in life but nothing about how to deal with the range of emotions I feel every day. We are nothing but emotions, one can argue, making this an important issue.

The rise of "Big Feelings"

Thankfully, I see a brewing backlash against Big Data and the emergence of what might be called "Big Feelings." (This began before the pandemic but has accelerated over the past year, with more attention being paid to the stress and anxiety associated with COVID-19.) One sign is a growing body of literature dedicated to the expanding field of the history of emotions. Recent advances in neuroscience are revealing the degree to which emotions dictate our actions, evidence that we are often not the rational beings we like to believe we are. (Note: There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition of “emotions,” but they are generally considered to be biologically based psychological states brought on by neurophysiological changes; I like to think of them more simply as a mash-up of thoughts and feelings.)

Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural in nature, the field of emotions addresses the key question of whether they are learned and are thus subject to the values of a particular time and place or are rather universal to the human experience. While steeped in theory, the area of study also lends itself nicely to the examination of the emotional life of a specific society or community, making it no wonder that more historians are being attracted to the field. Emotions have both shaped and reflected history to a greater degree than most people realize, we learn from published works, including those focused on shame, sympathy, fear, and my own books on happiness and love.

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More good news is the ascendancy of what I consider to be the power trio of human emotions—kindness, empathy, and compassion. These three represent our greatest attributes as a species, as they point to the kind of world we can create if we choose to do so. More individuals and organizations are recognizing the tremendous value of kindness, empathy, and compassion and are finding practical ways to integrate them into daily life, particularly through our relationships with others. Needless to say, this is a very good thing, as it offers hope that we can become more contented and altruistic people in the future.