Reason and Emotion
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00:00 One of the most interesting of all the wartime films is Reason and Emotion,
00:04 made in 1943 and nominated for an Academy Award. Here, using ingenious
00:10 visual ideas and humorous exaggeration, the filmmakers paint a vivid picture of
00:14 how our imagination can run away with us, what damage we can do by allowing our
00:19 emotions to overtake our common sense. Hitler, it argues most convincingly,
00:24 destroys reason and plays on emotion to gain power through fear.
00:30 Each one of us is equipped with the ability to think, known as reason, and
00:53 the ability to feel, known as emotion. Within the mind of each of us, these two
00:59 wage a ceaseless battle for mastery.
01:03 Of course, in the undeveloped mind of a child, there is only emotion. Let's go
01:15 inside Junior's head and watch emotion at work. Aha! Here he is. He's got the whole
01:22 place to himself. He can do as he pleases because reason isn't born yet.
01:28 Meanwhile, emotion is complete dictator in his control over the child.
01:34 Emotion loves adventure and excitement, so he says, "Let's go down there. Don't be
01:46 scared. It'll be fun." So Junior starts down. Mm-hmm. Emotionally upset. "Who are you?"
02:00 "I'm reason, and I've been here sooner. This would never have happened." "Oh yeah?
02:05 Well, just remember, I'm the boss around here." "Time will tell." Well, the battle for
02:15 mastery is on. And so Junior grows up into an average,
02:20 normal male. Time has brought about many changes inside his head since childhood.
02:28 Reason seems to be in the driver's seat, with emotion under control in the rear.
02:32 "Oh, I hate being tied down all the time. Let's hit the high spots." "Now, just
02:39 control yourself. When I'm driving, there will be no nonsense." "Oh, gee whiz. I want
02:44 to live dangerously." "Woo! Look at that! A classy dish, huh?" "Well, she's not bad."
02:55 "Hey, slow up. Let's get acquainted with this number. We'll just go up and..."
03:01 "Now, now, we must maintain proper respect for womanhood." "Oh, they like the rough
03:06 stuff. You're not gonna pass that up." "We certainly are. Now, sit down and behave
03:11 yourself." "Hmm, could I go for that?" "Here, let me handle this. We're going places."
03:22 "Hi, babe. Going my way?" And that's what you get for not listening to reason. It
03:34 served him right, young lady. Oh, by the way, may we borrow your pretty head for a
03:40 moment? Thank you." "You shouldn't have slapped him. He was cute. Do you want to
03:46 be an old maid?" "Please, remember we're a lady." "Oh, a lady. I'm tired of sitting
03:52 around being a lady. Let's have some fun." "I know." "Let's eat. I'm starving." "Well, I'm
03:59 not really hungry, but we might have something light, like tea and toast." "I
04:04 want a club sandwich and a giant double milkshake and..." "Oh, gracious, no. Think of our
04:08 figure." "You heard me. A club sandwich with potato salad." "But I insist, tea and..." "A
04:14 poor decker club sandwich with cheese and ham and tuna and chicken and
04:17 mayonnaise." "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Make a chocolate ice cream with whipped cream on top and a
04:22 cherry." "Remember, we're on a diet. Please." "And for dessert, I have chocolate layer cake with fudge icing." "Oh, dear, we shouldn't go." "Oh, and a man with hot
04:30 white fluffy owl and slushies." "Oh, dear, my whipped salad with whipped cream and nothing cherries on top." "Oh, oh, stop it." "Oh, what have you done?"
04:44 And here again you have the evidence that uncontrolled emotion can cause you a lot
04:48 of trouble. Now, in these strenuous times, it is more important than ever that we
04:54 control this conflict between reason and emotion. Let's take the case of Mr. John
05:00 Doakes, who tries to keep up with current events. "Tonight the news is very grim.
05:05 Looks bad, folks. We're going to lose this war, but not very careful." "Hey, you know
05:10 what I just heard? I heard the subs are sinking all our boats." "I heard on the
05:13 radio the other night. I got some insight, because..." "My son told me that the major told him..."
05:19 "The enemy is landing with heavy tanks and guns, and I'm afraid they're going to move right in."
05:24 "A friend of a friend of mine was at Pearl Harbor, and he said..." "We're taking all our food and sending it to Europe, while we starve to death, starve to death, starve to death, starve to death."
05:36 "You can't go to work without tires and gasoline." "He's got the right dough." "Don't believe everything you hear. We're losing."
05:41 "He said so." "Don't be stampeded by hearsay." "I'll believe anything I want to." "Keep us to his judgment and guard against..."
05:45 "Anxiety motion. Go ahead. Put reason out of the way. That's great. Fine. For Hitler..."
05:55 "That master rabble-rouser destroys reason by preying upon the weakness of emotion with fear, sympathy, pride, and hate, just as he did in the minds of the German people. Behold, the Nazi Superman."
06:13 "Let's see how Hitler controlled him through fear." "Fear of the concentration camp. Fear of the Gestapo." "Oh, I'm scared." "Don't listen to that madman."
06:30 "Now through sympathy. By crying, 'I only want peace, but they forced me into war.'" "Don't cry. He is a big liar." "Don't call my fuhrer a liar. The whole world is against your peace-loving fuhrer."
06:48 "Germany!" "Now it's pride. Pride in phony racial theories about Aryan superiority." "It's all childish nonsense." "Shut up. He's a genius and a great leader. Heil Hitler. Come on. Heil Hitler."
07:05 "Heil Hitler." "Hate. Hate for the free, democratic way of life. This is madness." "Yes, it's madness. Reason has been enslaved, while emotion is the master. A mad emotion, stripped of all reason, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake."
07:32 "So you see, fellows, for us, there is but one answer. You, reason, your job is to think, to plan, to discriminate. And you, emotion, to be a fine, strong emotion. An emotion that loves his country, his freedom, his life. And together, you must be grimly determined to fight against all odds."
07:57 "With reason firmly in the driver's seat, handling the controls along the difficult course to victory, and with emotion by his side, we will go on and do the job we've set out to do. And we'll do it right."
08:11 [Music]