Are you happy in the United States? - The balance between emotions and reason

Common sense teaches us that human actions are guided by both emotions and reason. However, at least in the western world, individual emotions have been considered taboo, which prevents a full understanding of self. To overcome this deficiency, we must first reveal the complex interrelationships between emotion and reason, which can be accomplished by identifying and studying their evolutionary homologues in animals. A comparison between animals and us suggests that reason evolved from animal territoriality. This, along with previously existing emotional protolanguage enabled the development of structured language. Once the interaction between emotions and territoriality in animals is understood, the roles of emotions and reason in human behavior become clear. In this way, the basis of human intellectual activities, such as thinking, goal- seeking, planning, and decision-making, emerge transparent from a cloud of mystery. In other words, emotions drive actions guided by reason. Thus, social evolution of civilizations is defined by complex interactions among human activities, emotions and reason. In addition, these interactions are not merely random, as civilizations are held together by their core emotions, which can be thought of as a civilization’s “emotional DNA”. As in biology, DNA’s of different civilizations cannot arbitrarily be mixed. Instead, in order for a civilization to survive and thrive, social evolution must be driven by emotional education of the next generation. Failure of education causes a civilization to decline and emotional distress to its individuals. While the individual cannot repair a social discontinuity, he/she has recourse to improve their own psychological stability.