Emotions are illogical

However, many serial killers kill because of emotions. Many of them do not do so because it is logical to them, but because they find some emotional satisfaction in doing so. The logic they use is to escape the consequences of their acts. They do feel some emotion when they commit their acts, they feel satisfied, pleased and in many cases, happy I'm sure.

Let's look at this in more detail. If they were to listen to this logic in the 1st place, I'm sure many of them would agree that they shouldn't really do the act, because of the consequences when caught(most are caught) and consequences they have to live with in their lives. I'm not speaking about morals at all here, as they are quite subjective. Logically and consciously, they know they live their lives on the run, they are always watching their backs, always living extra carefully and are never really carefree. They sacrifice their freedom judicially and socially for stupid acts driven by emotion. And this makes my point strongly.

Let's use the opposite. I'll give an example. If you knew(and only you knew) there was a person, or group of persons that needed to be eliminated in order for human kind to have any sort of future, what would you do? Now, you are no killer, and if you commit this murder, you may feel terrible guilt, lose your freedom, your family, love and may even hate yourself to some degree. If you let those emotions decide for you, in reality, you let the human race perish for your short-term, selfish needs of immediate love, social freedom and family life. If you commit this act, you will lose all mentioned, but your grand children, or great grand children and the rest of the world may have a future that is worth living. Logically, what would you do? Me; I'd risk losing everything I have presently to reap better, long-term
benefits, even if I or my immediate family may not be around to enjoy them. Sex is a perfect example. Many people have unprotected sex because of the immediate need to feel satisfied, knowing full well the long-term effects it can have. I am a very logical person, and even I have made this mistake and am still awaiting the results of the rest of my future.

I'm not saying we should do-away or totally ignore our emotions, but that we must use our brains more often than our instinct in most decision making.

I will not use love as an example, as I see romantic love as a waste of time. Please, respect that that is how I perceive it to be. I will use art as an example. In dealing with art, you are ruled by your emotions and logic, but mostly, because of feeling. Without it, art is no longer expression of feeling, but mostly...calculated mathematics. However, one must in anything driven by emotion or logic, what will be the outcome, how it will affect me and others; long-term or otherwise and if the answers to those questions are answers you do not wish to hear and the idea of the decision derived from feelings, then it is clear to you what needs to be done. Put those feelings aside and reason out the situation. That's all we're saying really.

Emotions are a part of us, and if we remove them completely, we will not be able to truly enjoy our logical calculations, as happiness is an emotion. To be more specific, emotions alone should not be the reason for making any decision, but more so, logical calculations.

[edit on 13-8-2008 by sdrawkcabII]

Originally posted by JungianQueen
Many serial killers are absolutely precise in their mannerisms and deeds. The good ones don't get caught right away for a reason--they are thorough and enact in a very detached and emotionless manner.

I guess I should have said more that they are not necessarily rational (on a whole) but they are perfectly capable of removing emotion from their actions. If a normal, healthy person were to kill another human being, imagine the panic, the fear, the utter chaos. Not so for serial killers. No emotions = no panicked mistakes. They may get off sexually, of course, but they clean up their messes quite meticulously and w/o feeling, remorse or emotion.

They may use logic after they kill, or on the run, but their main
act was driven by emotions and not logic. I see emos as being the same.
They don't express emotion in the same way others do, yet we know they are very emotional. When something bad happens to them, instead of seeking help, they base their decision PURELY on emotion and cut themselves. This makes them feel better in the moment but does nothing for the future. I see serial killers the exact same way. They kill to satisfy an
emotional need that they may not even be able to describe at the time. It's
hard for us normal folk to understand that emotion, but I know that a lot
of criminals are very emotional, and simply do a lot to hide it.
Serial killers may seem emotionless because they reject emotions such as
love, but embrace emotions such as anger.

reply to post by sdrawkcabII


Exactly the point I was trying to get across, thank you. In short, emotional decisions made in the heat of the moment almost always turn out bad, while logical decisions made in the heat of the moment almost always bode well for the future. Of course some peoples logic is skewed, which is why humanity can never be a perfect system. I see a utopia as an asymptote; we can get closer to it, but never touch it.