0356) It seems to me that the level of irrational thought increases directly in correlation with the size of a lottery draw. One notably large prize recently made the news because it was won locally. Watching the reactions of the people around me, reactions ranging from the highs of anticipation to the lows of disappointment and realization, made me wonder just how rational such a gamble might be, no matter the small size of the investment relative to the payout.

0802) It seems to me that we should pay more attention to the people calling for increased privacy and anonymity. Fair enough, there are occasions when such is genuinely warranted. But often the need for anonymity is the result of people taking actions, making statements, sharing information or influencing others yet being unable or unwilling to face the consequences of those actions, statements, words, or ideas.

0602) It seems to me that people who enjoy speeding in their cars on public roads are acting irrationally. Forget for the moment that in most places breaking limits imposed by society is generally illegal. And forget for a moment that — with regard to public safety — speeding is generally an immoral thing to do. If nothing else, is it a rational risk to gamble one’s own personal health and safety (and that of the passengers — kids if the driver is a parent) to arrive somewhere a few minutes early?

0254) It seems to me that as soon as rational statements become fashionable or popular opinions they are at risk of losing their status as rational statements. Ideas based by any degree on how they will be viewed by others start to reek of irrationality.

0222) It seems to me that I don’t really have a clear and definitive starting point from which to understand the beliefs and ideologies of humanity. It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg-type problem, though, isn’t it? After all, are our beliefs a reflection of our society, or is our society a reflection of our beliefs? Or, to borrow from an example in architecture, are society and beliefs just two of a set of key-stones in an archway that would otherwise struggle to stay standing without each and all the stones in place? Or can we even link them without setting up all kinds of false dichotomies and logically failing arguments? (Isn’t philosophy fun.) And yet I still don’t know where to start with understanding belief systems.

Your turn… altercate, argue, bounce off, canvass, compare notes, confabulate, confer, consider, consult with, contend, contest, converse, debate, deliberate, descant, discept, discourse about, discuss, dispute, examine, exchange views on, explain, figure, get together, go into, groupthink, hash over, hold forth, jaw, kick about, knock around, moot, reason about, review, sift, take up, thrash out, toss around and/or otherwise weigh in in the comments below.