Rhetoric of Written Argument

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Rhetoric of Written Argument

In the chapter “Immune to Reality”, Daniel Gilbert notes that the mind has the ability to invoke protective measures. Sometimes, the mind even lies to an individual with the intention of averting danger (Gilbert 34). In the other sections, Daniel Gilbert illustrates the various techniques through which the mind fabricates facts and affects the emotional state. From a personal experience, I found it very difficult to accept that my uncle had died from cancer. I spent about three weeks before the funeral denying this fact until I saw his corpse in the casket. On the day of the burial, I was finally convinced that he was rested and no harm would come to him. In this particular situation, the thought that a close person would undergo suffering would be dangerous to the psychological and physiological state of the subject. The high amount of pressure being applied on one’s opinion of handling such an unjust society causes people to escape from reality and into a fabricated illusion where justice is realized (Gilbert 44). This mental reaction according to Daniel Gilbert is considered an “inaction approach” that is scarcely effective given that it plays an insignificant role in reality. Conversely, it wastes a lot of valuable time and creates uncertainty within an individual and in the immediate environment. Human beings stand to lose by applying fantasy or false impressions to address their issues (Gilbert 76). These approaches are particularly risky given that they are temporary figments, notions that lack the ability to infuse permanent alterations that can solve predicaments (Gilbert 12). They simply cause alterations of an individual’s perception, tricking them into believing an artificial sense of contentment. Delusions and fantasy are also unable to transform the concrete reality since it is only an untrustworthy temporary perspective of the mental depiction of the reality.

Work Cited

Gilbert, Daniel T. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2006. Print.