Thinking versus Fantasising

The cognitive ability among members of a political community to see the distinction between thinking and fantasising is a critical factor in ensuring social advancement. Both involve intense engagement of the mind, but they differ in their relation to reality. Thinking aims to understand what is true, what follows from what, and what can be justified by evidence and logic. It is constrained by facts and often leads to uncomfortable or humbling conclusions. Fantasising, by contrast, serves the ego and emotions. It creates inner narratives shaped by desire, fear, or vanity, with no obligation to be accurate. Thinking submits to what is; fantasising reshapes what is to fit what one wants to believe. The first is labour; the second is pleasure.

The point I want to make is that even recognised intellectuals confuse fantasy with thinking and then do tremendous labour to prop up their wishful thinking with logic, data, and agency. This has happened repeatedly and has been a recurring tragedy for humankind. For instance, one can review a whole stream of Western political philosophy that gained great traction in the developing world.

Niraj Kumar Jha