Vulcan Council President: Why did you come before this council today? Was it to satisfy your emotional need to rebel?
More's the pity that the science fiction in Star Trek is so far from present day reality. It is fascinating to see how easily, in the Star Trek scenario at any rate, officers are swapped and exchanged simply based on their usefulness or training. There are no hearings or debates - if someone is found to be emotionally compromised, or less skilled than another, they are replaced without discussion, without paperwork.
You might think that this could be unfair. On the contrary, it is based on everyone knowing that they serve the greater good. Something sorely lacking on this planet. Here, the service is to The Great Me.
As for logic, here on earth, it's an irritant rather than an integral part of a truly altruistic pursuit of advancing our knowledge and thereby, our common prospects, our common destiny.
Spock: [after Kirk offers surrender terms to Nero] Captain, what are you doing?
Kirk: Showing them compassion. It may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus. It's logic, Spock, I thought you'd like that.
Spock: No, not really. Not this time.
Logic, as we know, is corrupted, and in very few instances, improved upon, even strengthened by emotions.
We live in a world, however, where emotions and impulse reign supreme, and logic powers our computers, our tools. As such, logic becomes enslaved to emotions. Think of a college student searching for porn. And we know that for the majority of the period that the internet has existed, it has served baser instincts as a primary function. There is a price to pay for this.
Because the logical question that should be asked by each of us, at any time of time, during any season, is simply this: What is the best use of my time right now? It's a logical question that deserves a logical answer. But how many of us are capable of giving one?
There is a place for logic, particularly when our lives are clouded by consumer driven passions, by manifest addictions.
But if logic is a cure to our mental malaise, what lies beyond that?
Burly Cadet #1: Hey farmboy. Maybe you can't count. But there are four of us and one of you.
Kirk: So get some more guys and then it'll be an even fight.
The answer is that you have to believe that every scenario has an upside.
Kirk: "I don't believe in no win scenarios."
The trick is to believe in a winning scenario without losing touch with reality, without having the cord of logic that anchors us to reason, severed, by unfounded optimism. If you can do that you can be the captain of your own enterprise.
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