Rationalisation
THE TECHNICALITY OF IT ALL
Jay Bilas once said, “Toughness is the ability not to rationalise.” Rationalisation is to make an excuse for not achieving more than you have to that point.
Rationalisation is something we all experience. It’s a way we shield our mistakes, turning apologies obsolete using technicalities. Many use it to blur the lines between right and wrong, adjusting their consciences and lowering moral standards.
By definition, it is the act of trying to justify or make something seem reasonable, often without fully examining the true intent and subconscious motives. It’s when we say things like, “Technically, that’s true, but if you look at it from this angle…”
Whenever you find yourself saying, “Technically…” you’ve likely already acknowledged, at least subconsciously, that you deserve some of the blame.
It often starts during childhood — when we fight with friends and, when asked, we say, “She started it.” As teenagers, we might hit someone for tearing our notes and justify it by saying, “He deserved it.”
Rationalisation typically happens in two phases. First, you choose to do something you know isn’t right, driven by emotion. Then, when confronted, you come up with a logical-sounding excuse to avoid criticism. This is what’s called “backward-rationalising.” Some people even go so far as to search for justifications in advance, ready to defend their actions when questioned.
Democritus gives us a classic example: People often rationalise their greed by claiming it’s for the good of their children. In truth, this is just a way to seem respectable while performing selfish, despicable acts.
Movies today often echo this theme, portraying villains not as purely evil but as characters whose motives depend on who’s telling the story.
Not all poor people steal, and not everyone kills their neighbour for looking down on them or their rich friend for being stingy. So, there’s no justification in saying, “Technically, he was wicked, and that’s why I killed him.”
As Ayn Rand wisely put it, “Rationalisation is a cover-up, a process of providing one’s emotions with a false identity, of giving them spurious explanations and justifications — in order to hide one’s motives, not just from others but primarily from oneself. The price of rationalising is the hampering, the distortion, and ultimately, the destruction of one’s cognitive faculty. Rationalisation is a process not of perceiving reality but of attempting to make reality fit into one’s emotions.”
Don’t rationalise unnecessarily. Understand your true motives and offer sincere apologies when needed.
