Hi Reader,

I laughed when that subject line came to me. Classic double meaning.

Of course I mean "feelings themselves are not intelligent," and not the more epithetical "screw feelings!"

(But hey, sometimes I feel that way, you know?)

I was at a friend's parent's house the other day, and they had one of those security systems that dinged every time someone came into the kitchen: "BACK. DOOR."

My friend and I were laughing that probably literally 100% of the time that warning was not actually achieving any purpose related to home security. It sure was doing a good job of telling us there was a pool party with lots of kids, though: BACK. DOOR. BACK. DOOR. BACK. DOOR.

For me, this feelings/truth thing came to mind. I've heard people talk about this kind of anxiety that leads them to purchase a home security system. (BACK. DOOR.)

But doing what that feeling prompts them to do seems like it generally results in MORE anxiety, not less. (BACK. DOOR.) And it doesn't (BACK.) make them (DOOR.) any safer.

Ok, maybe that's not fair. Maybe the would-be home invader breaks the lock, opens the door, hears the ominous BACK. DOOR. announcement (in the kitchen, not the bedroom where his potential victims are sleeping) and turns around to leave. There appears to be some evidence to support that.

The point I want to make is that the feeling of being anxious about home invasion isn't an accurate indication that you aren't safe at home. People who are highly anxious about home invasion don't experience more home invasions than the average person.

So they can act on the feeling, which has the potential result of increasing anxiety. Which might be interesting, but is more likely insane. This is what I mean by feelings are stupid: we think they're painting an accurate picture of the world for us, but they're stupid—they aren't telling the truth, they're just asking to be felt.

Because of this, acting on a feeling instead of feeling it will often result in the feeling getting louder/stronger because it hasn't gotten what it wants: to be felt, fully.

Huh. I guess in that way maybe feelings ARE pretty smart. It's just people that are stupid. Ha!