The Conflicts Between Desire And Reason

“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.”― George Bernard Shaw

Desire and reason are two sneaky bastards, perpetually at war against one another. Incapable of meeting each other halfway, they violently push onto the other their particular agenda. The heart may want what it wants, but you can be sure reason will nonetheless stand still to hold its ground. Comprise? Don’t fool yourself. I want it my way, and all the way. Prisoner of his own ambivalence, the human mind can’t help but wish he wasn’t a slave to his conflicted nature. No tradeoffs are possible when equity is off the table.

Desire and emotion are intertwined, as they both need one another to ensure their own survival. To desire is to be emotionally attached to a specific outcome. What’s desire without attachment? Can we even claim we are desiring if we remove the attachment component? But then again, the desire to not desire is a desire itself. Paradoxically, while reason may be in conflict with desire, reason too, attempts to fulfill its own desire of pursuing logic at all costs. In this sense, reason is powerless in the absence of desire.

Constantly attempting to attack the other’s weak spot, instant gratification is to willpower what reason is to desire. Each party gets hurt, nobody wins, and that’s what makes it so fucking exciting. Stuck in a loop of endless moral dysfunction, desire can’t keep its hands off reason, even though both secretly fantasize of murdering the other. When it’s heaven where you are, it’s hell all over me. And only you can save me.

Maybe the answer lies in perceiving our desires in a different light, with perhaps less rigidity and more flexibility. To desire is not where the problem is. The problem rests in the fact that we want our desire to absolutely be fulfilled. In such a way, we are sure to inflict pain onto ourselves when reality doesn’t conform itself to our wishes. Refraining from wanting absolutes is a sure way to prevent potential disappointment and hurt from crawling into our psyche.