“Reason is always a kind of brute force”

“Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

The history of the last 250 years shows that the so-called ‘men of reason’ are generally violent, tyrannical, cultish and foolish. The French Revolution of the 18th century was spearheaded by the self-proclaimed men of reason who believed that theirs was the “Age of Enlightenment”. They butchered millions of people with the aim of creating a utopia of reason, secularism and science. 

In the 20th century, tyrannically revolutionaries and warmongers like Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler, Mussolini, Jean-Paul Sartre, Mao and Pol Pot strongly believed that they had the right to rule all of humanity because “reason” was on their side. The American progressives believe that reason is on their side but they are constantly using their country’s economic resources to wage senseless wars. 

The postmodernists and the libertarians proclaim that they have a monopoly on reason. But they are out of touch with reality and their political and cultural opinions are often silly. Pop fiction writer Ayn Rand proclaimed the supremacy of reason but she went on to found a dumb cult, which glorifies adultery, abortion and even non-consensual sex (Howard Roark on Dominque) as a sign of creative individualism. 

I am in full agreement with Chesterton—reason is indeed a brute force. The men of reason are as dangerous, as psychopathic as the religious fundamentalists.