DUALITY -
'You men are all bastards' - A woman screams in a crowded
restaurant and walks out seething

The brain is, in computing analogy, the hard disc. In itself its function is mostly storage. The moment the brain is receptive to informational input from our five senses (and the debatable 6^th), it or parts of it function as the mind. Awareness of the senses is consciousness (not the yogic kind). The conscious mind seems to have just one purpose – do anything and everything to propagate and preserve itself ( through the body it is housed in).

The mind reacts to this sensory- inflow by analyzing. This function is intelligence. Based on the information previously stored, the additional data is crosschecked for patterns, contrasts and ambiguities. This is rationalizing. And is the primary employment of intelligence. The wanton mind originally has selfishly derived intelligence for the purpose of self propagation (reproduction required – Sex) and secondarily, preservation ( energy input required – Food)

Sex and Food. Lust and Hunger. These drive all life forms. Specifically, Sex is the predominant objective, Food being the tangible requisite to sustain the former. They characterize the twin-purposes that drive primitive conscious action.

The paradox starts here. Food and Sex. To eat, killing is necessary. To mate, socializing. Eat, Mate. Hunt, hug. Chase, Embrace. Aggression, compassion. Life starts off being contradictory. Hate/Love etched into even the most primitive genes. The dilemma of the mind to achieve this twin intent back to back must have been another trigger for evolution.

Intelligence could probably find no rational means to solve this contradiction; For catering to the paradox would be violating the rules of reason. So the wily mind brings in a new player - Emotion. Emotion is corrupted intelligence. Corrupted, short-circuited by the mind for a dubious purpose. Emotion is a magician who creates illusion. Creates something out of nothing. Or pretends to. Emotion is the ultimate hallucinogen. Love, Hate, Jealousy, Passion, Joy etc are intangibles manipulated to great results by the mind to delude intelligence into managing these paradoxical twin requirements. And the mind has ultimately succeeded.

Now the Lioness could tear apart and chew the innards of a still-alive gazelle and come back to pet her cubs. Now the man could heartlessly slit the throat of another and yet make gentle love to his mate that night. iTs in the genes.