History Main / StrawVulcan

* Possible example in Creator/EECummings's poem ''[[http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/feeling.html since feeling is first,]]'' although it doesn't say logic is wrong per se, simply that it's less important than love.

** The prime directive of the Daleks is not Omnicidal destruction, it's the survival of the Dalek race, as seen in the Victory of the Daleks. They will do anything to complete their mission of destroying all other life as long as they themselves don't get completely wiped out. That seems to me like being very logical. The real weird bit is when the Doctor demonstrates the problem of perfect logic by getting two Movellans to take part in RockPaperScissors and noting that they always draw. Why should they draw? The game is a game of pure chance, there is no logical reason to chose any option so purely logical beings should just produce random choices (unless their random number seeds were all set to the same value). His reasoning here is that the Movellans are not really so logical but rather ridiculously short-sighted. After the first rock versus rock loss, if one assumes that the opponent will try the counter to rock (paper), then the logical response is to counter that with scissors - and they both do. Then they both think the opponent will try rock to break scissors and both play paper, and so on and so forth. The Doctor thinks one step ahead and plays the counter of that counter-counter round after round. A perfectly logical being would have deduced that such short-sighted automatic responses fail! The Movellans are not purely logical, they just suck at playing IKnowYouKnowIKnow.

** ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'' could provide a nice page quote, but it must be pointed out that the Literature/{{Discworld}} is a place where million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten. Logic really can only take you so far in that world.
** Parodied in ''Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen''. Tiffany Aching, having gone to enormous trouble to get into fairyland to bring her brother home, finds him sitting in a pile of candy, wailing his head off, because he has arrived at the conclusion that he cannot eat any of it based on Buridan's Ass logic: he can grab any piece of candy he wants, and eat it, but if he chooses any one piece to eat, it would mean that he's letting other pieces of candy go uneaten, which is something he cannot bear to do. Justified in that A) he's approximately three, and B) it's implied he's been fed so much candy the sugar rush has addled his little three-year-old brain already.

** In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', Carrot displays the perfect balance between logic and emotion. Declining to go and rescue Angua who is being held prisoner on a Klatchian ship, he points out his presence is needed elsewhere where he can accomplish more.

* [[GreenLantern The Guardians of the Universe]] have been made into Straw Vulcans more and more with each writer. They did always have a stoic and cold sense to them, but recent story arcs put great emphasis on their hatred of all emotion, even from those within their own Corps, all while they become less competent and trustworthy. [[spoiler:In the Blackest Night CrisisCrossover one of the Guardians, when asked why his people chose to defend the cosmos, replied "I don't remember," in spite of their motivations having been well-established for some time.]]

* ''Series/StarTrek'':

*** Also subverted in "A Piece of the Action".

The most common mistake is to assume that logic and emotion are [[FalseDichotomy somehow naturally opposed and that employing one means you can't have the other]]. Excluding emotion doesn't make your reasoning logical, however, and it certainly doesn't cause your answer to be automatically true. Likewise, an emotional response doesn't preclude logical thinking -- [[InsaneTrollLogic although it may prevent you from thinking in the first place]] -- and if a plan someone defended for emotional reasons is successful, that doesn't make logic somehow wrong.

This trope was explored (and TV Tropes namechecked) in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLgNZ9aTEwc speech by Julia Galef]] at Skepticon 4 in 2011.

* In ''Series/SuperSentai'', TheHero is almost always a loudmouth with more adrenaline than brains (similar to the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' franchise's [[GogglesDoNothing goggle-wearer]]). In an episode of ''Magiranger'' in which TheHero and his mentor switch roles, the very FamilyUnfriendlyAesop was to not waste your time thinking, and just [[ScreamingWarrior charge in yelling]] as TheHero does. RightMakesMight, and thinking only gets in the way. This exact plot was copied over in ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'', the Americanized version of ''Magiranger''.

* In ''SuperSentai'', TheHero is almost always a loudmouth with more adrenaline than brains (similar to the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' franchise's [[GogglesDoNothing goggle-wearer]]). In an episode of ''Magiranger'' in which TheHero and his mentor switch roles, the very FamilyUnfriendlyAesop was to not waste your time thinking, and just [[ScreamingWarrior charge in yelling]] as TheHero does. RightMakesMight, and thinking only gets in the way. This exact plot was copied over in ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'', the Americanized version of ''Magiranger''.

* Averted with First Lieutenant Lin from ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Dark Conflict'' (AKA "Days of Ruin", outside of Europe), a highly logical tactician who nevertheless concedes command of the army to Ed (Will in ''Days of Ruin''), on the grounds that he is better respected by the troops and civilians and will therefore be a more effective leader. At one point, she even commends Ed for giving an emotional speech to motivate the troops. There's also the scene where she had [[spoiler:Greyfield/Sigismundo at her mercy, and he tries to save himself by pointing out that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim she'd be doing the same thing he did]]. She agrees... and shoots him anyway.]]

* ''Film/TheMist'': Norton and his group of skeptics who leave the store because they don't believe there are any monsters in the mist. Lets back up a step. If the skeptics are right about the mist being natural and stay in the store then the weather will blow over in a few hours to a day or someone will come by looking for the grocery store and update them on the situation. They are on their way after a short delay, at most a minor inconvenience. If the other groups are right about the mist and there are monsters outside the best bet for survival is not to go outside to be picked off by monsters. The risk analysis of the situation, however low the probability of lethal monsters, would point to staying in the well stocked grocery store and not wandering off. So of course they choose the 'rational choice' after concluding there are no monsters and immediately decide to leave. Norton tells David right before he leaves that if he's wrong the joke will be on him. Poor decision or not, he is at least willing to admit that much. In the novella, David thinks that Norton is, at some level, committing deliberate suicide.

See DumbIsGood, YouFailLogicForever, GivingUpOnLogic, SimplemindedWisdom, DontThinkFeel, and MeasuringTheMarigolds. Compare StrawHypocrite. The existence of this character means that the writer falls on the Romanticist side of RomanticismVersusEnlightenment. Contrast to EmotionsVsStoicism. {{Opposite trope|s}} to StrawmanEmotional.

* Racter from ''[[VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns Shadowrun: Hong Kong]]'' firmly believes that humanity can only reach ''true'' transcendence via complete cyberization. This is in the face of the fact that cybernetics in the Shadowrun universe are known to literally [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul eat your soul]] and have in the past turned people who put a bit too many cybernetics into themselves into crazed, emotionless psychopaths, but Racter actually believes that emotions are is what is ''holding humanity back'' from transcendence anyways. Racter himself is [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe half]] cybernetic, but he doesn't experience the side effects (or so he says) because he was ''already diagnosed with sociopathy'' as a young child anyways. Thus, his belief is that the ''one'' thing that prevents humanity from reaching its true potential is its capacity for emotions.

* Racter from ''[[VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns Shadowrun: Hong Kong]]'' firmly believes that the ''one'' thing holding humanity back from truly progressing to transcendence is their capacity for emotion and human empathy. Granted, he believes that humanity's "transcendance" will be carried out by humanity fully cyberizing itself and merging with synthetic life.

* [[spoiler:The Incubators]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' regard human emotion as nothing more than [[spoiler:an energy source]], and often fail to understand why Madoka and the rest of the cast get sad or angry at how [[spoiler:the Incubators are using mankind]]. The entire conflict is due to [[spoiler:Incubators believing the energy release gained from a magical girl turning into a witch is far more valuable to a greater amount of people than one person's happiness, and go so far as to compare Incubators use of humans to how humans raise cows for milk and beef. They believe there's a fair trade in the wishes and technology the Incubators have provided humans for their actions, and refute any claims they've lied or tricked the rest of the characters, since the Incubators never directly lied and only omitted details about the contract the magical girls make. That's if you're willing to take their own word for it, of course; they present no evidence whatsoever for these claims, and have proven themselves completely untrustworthy. Kyubey goes considerably out of his way to never directly deny tricking the girls, instead saying it's their fault for trusting him.]]

-->-- '''Rabindranath Tagore'''

* [[spoiler:The Incubators]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' regard human emotion as nothing more than [[spoiler:an energy source]], and often fail to understand why Madoka and the rest of the cast get sad or angry at how [[spoiler:the Incubators are using mankind]]. The entire conflict is due to [[spoiler:Incubators believing the energy release gained from a magical girl turning into a witch is far more valuable to a greater amount of people than one person's happiness, and go so far as to compare Incubators use of humans to how humans raise cows for milk and beef. They believe there's a fair trade in the wishes and technology the Incubators have provided humans for their actions, and refute any claims they've lied or tricked the rest of the characters, since the Incubators never directly lied and only omitted details about the contract the magical girls make.]]

** Used in the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film (probably as an intentional ShoutOut) when Spock seeks to regroup with the rest of the surviving fleet, yet the seemingly invincible ''Narada'' is headed to destroy Earth; Kirk takes the opposing ''emotional'' side, notes the Earth will be doomed while the fleet rallies, and opts to face the ''Narada'' in a head on, likely suicidal confrontation. This time, however, Spock is captain, and outranks Kirk. Later Kirk shows that Spock is emotionally ''compromised'' and takes command. In both instances we are talking about the young Spock from the alternate timeline created by the ''Narada'' at the beginning of the film.

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* Wikipedia
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-Wikipedia

*** While T'Pol is probably the queen of all Straw Vulcans, she's also [[TheStrawmanStrikesBack often proven completely right]] for [[IdiotPlot all of the wrong reasons]]. For example, in an early episode, the crew discovers an uncharted Earth-like planet. T'Pol mentions that standard Vulcan protocol for such an event is to scan the planet from orbit for a week before sending people down in person. Archer basically ignores her, because he wants to go down and explore in person, and immediately sends a team down that isn't equipped with any kind of protective suits. The entire conflict of the episode (which almost results in deaths) comes from the fact that the air contains hallucinogens, which is something that would have been discovered if they spent time to scan the planet first.

*** Infamously played straight in "The Apple", where Kirk and [=McCoy=] try to destroy the machine that keeps the native civilization of the paradise planet alive, in order to show them the value of love and freedom. Spock points out to them that Starfleet officers are not permitted to interfere in the politics of primitive alien civilizations, that they have no way to predict the consequences of such a drastic interference in the evolution of a species they just discovered earlier that day, and that the natives lead long, happy lives under the existing system, even if a human in the same situation might be less content. Kirk retorts that he owes it to the natives to give them the freedom to choose how to live and think for themselves -- even though, so far as is shown, the natives' service to the machine is entirely voluntary. The episode doesn't show us the aftermath of Kirk's decision, but when Spock attempts to discuss them in the final scene, Kirk and [=McCoy=] just [[AdHominem mock his physical appearance]] and ignore everything he says.

** Used in the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film (probably as an intentional ShoutOut) when Spock seeks to regroup with the rest of the surviving fleet, yet the seemingly invincible ''Narada'' is headed to destroy Earth; Kirk takes the opposing ''emotional'' side, notes the Earth will be doomed while the fleet rallies and opts to face the ''Narada'' in a head on, likely suicidal confrontation. This time, however, Spock is captain, and outranks Kirk. Later Kirk shows that Spock is emotionally ''compromised'' and takes command. In both instances we are talking about the young Spock from the alternate timeline created by the ''Narada'' at the beginning of the film.