Do you agree that emotions are what keeps us from success?

Question

Whether it is Happyness and exitement, or Sadness, fear and Anger, Emotions cause us to loose control of our mind and body.

It is a fact that when one is angry, their total I.Q. level temporarily lowers by a significant percent. So do you agree that without emotions, our world and society would be way more succesful, and ultimately better?

and you might argue that it would be better without the negative emotions, well NO it wouldnt because without negative emotions, you wouldnt value the positive ones because you have nothing to compare them to. so its either Emotions, or NO Emotions at all.

Do you Agree with this? Yes or no, and Why?

Answer 1

Emotions do not have to be the cause of effects which keep us from success. Actors and singers, for example, must tap into their emotions in order to be a success.

But even if you are not an actor or singer, when you feel great emotion and if you have a handle on them, they can lead you to the right decisions--because they indicate your value system.

"Just as the pleasure-pain mechanism of man’s body is an automatic indicator of his body’s welfare or injury, a barometer of its basic alternative, life or death—so the emotional mechanism of man’s consciousness is geared to perform the same function, as a barometer that registers the same alternative by means of two basic emotions: joy or suffering. Emotions are the automatic results of man’s value judgments integrated by his subconscious; emotions are estimates of that which furthers man’s values or threatens them, that which is for him or against him—lightning calculators giving him the sum of his profit or loss.

"But since the work of man’s mind is not automatic, his values, like all his premises, are the product either of his thinking or of his evasions: man chooses his values by a conscious process of thought—or accepts them by default, by subconscious associations, on faith, on someone’s authority, by some form of social osmosis or blind imitation. Emotions are produced by man’s premises, held consciously or subconsciously, explicitly or implicitly."

“The Objectivist Ethics,” The Virtue of Selfishness Ayn Rand

Answer 2

I take a more pragmatic view of this, emotions have helped keep us alive for thousands and thousands of years.  Still not broke, don't need to fix it.