Chess, Not Checkers: Why Logic Must Supersede Emotion in World Politics and Elsewhere

The removal of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has the world talking about a new world order, and as a result you can notice a level of certainty and confidence that things will improve internally in the country. The only problem is that change cannot be built on a foundation filled with cracks and fueled by hatred. Today, we see a dangerous pattern repeating itself. There is a celebration of foreign interference on one's own soil, out of a desperate desire for new beginnings. It is the same emotional fire that fueled the 1979 replacement of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - a maneuver that proved that any action birthed from hate can only produce a harvest of further suffering. A former monarchy was exchanged with a rule under Islam, by the hands of its own citizens.I argue the importance of choosing logic over the impulse of revenge, for a short lived victory in disguise. I also use Chess as a metaphor, to prove this point. If you lose your logical neutrality to the fire of emotion, you have already checkmated yourself on behalf of your opponent. If you aren't thinking 10-20+ moves ahead, you aren't playing the game - you are being played. The same is true for world politics. Listen to lessons stemming from Henry Kissinger and Diplomacy, The Cuban Missile Crisis and why a truly free Iran requires a paradigm shift - from an emotionally unrestrained stalemate, to a calm and calculated check-mate.