Sometimes the blindingly obvious is anything but - unless you’re the go-to person in the field of expertise that the obvious in question is about - and as a fr’example I came across David Ropeik’s take down of the irrational side of irrational fears (and the excellently titled book ‘How Risky Is it, Really?’)

His thesis appears (I’ve ordered the book, so I’m writing this in blissful ex tempore mode) to be that we’re not really wired for the modern world (I know right?) as our minds are still primed to be afraid of tigers before, say Twitter. That fear of nature-stuff-in-the-past that might have killed us still drives first instincts. Consequently we’re still slightly more unnerved of the dark in our own homes than, say, diving into the dark net. 

It struck me as pretty odd that this was described as ‘ingrained irrationality’ but on reflection - see! - perfectly obvious. 

Bumping up against the urge to ‘feel then after think’ clearly isn’t rational. And by extension, probably explains much of the toxicity of social media - posts driven by emotions firing off and fired off before before reflecting. 

So I want to say something in praise of The Pause.

I want those of you who are desperate to fill every void, short stop, small silence, with your mind noise and. Just. Stop. Talking. For a moment and think. And more importantly, allow the others in the room a little space to reflect on what they’re feeling. 

Jean Cocteau’s rather sublime take, that “Mirrors should think longer before they reflect” line takes on a contemporary and more urgent significance, given those little mobile black mirrors that demand so much of our attention. If Cocteau were alive today, he might entreat those devices to be a little less divisive. 

Some commentators would say we’re already getting better at doing this ‘pre-processing’. Tufts University’s Daniel Dennett observes “We’re going to develop more and better-thinking tools.” To which I’d add, hmm, probably don’t need more tools right now. There’s the tool between your ears to help with that. 

Fighting the urge to say (type, text, re-post, hate) the first thing that pops into your head and take a moment to think about what you’re thinking is really hard - but not impossible. Perhaps take a leaf out the highway-person’s clarion cry of ‘stand and deliver!’ to bring the coach and horses up short (and so as to relieve the poor traveller of their valuables) and say out loud - actually, in your head is probably best - ‘stand and consider!’

You’ll not be able to stop feeling first, but it’s often worth a pause to think for a second. And a second look. 

With apologies to Stuart Leslie Goddard for the unsolicited use of his pictorial nom de plume. Or nom de image, perhaps.