Andrew Grant White Happiness, Liberty, Life
Age of Irrationality
I like The Lord of the Rings. One of the reasons, I think, that it resonates so well is not just the films’ pioneering CGI nor J.R.R. Tolkien’s superb storytelling, but that source material is an overtly cautionary tale for modern times. That it was written almost 75 years ago and still pertinent today says something. We live in an Age of Irrationality. Never have humans been more organized yet have less sense.
We’ve all had giggles and outrages at the hypocrisy, beliefs, and actions in many segments of society. It’s our sad attempt to rebel without power against things we have bluntly little control over. So, we express passive-aggressive. However, even when “logical discussion” is attempted, it is too little beneficial end anymore. Contrary to convention though, a logic system does NOT imply rationality.
Everyone is logical; NOT everyone is rational. Few to any walk around consistently thinking, “Hey, I’m a terribly stupid person doing all the wrong things in life.” That’s a recipe for insanity. People do however walk around effectively thinking, “1+1=3.” They’re right too, to them. Truth though is not a relative concept. Truth is objective. Otherwise, it is not truth – merely opinion based on mercurial emotion.
Critical Thinking – Not WHAT to feel but HOW to think…and the WHY
If we live in an age absent rationality, how are we to know what to do? Critical Thinking. Objective analysis to form a sound judgement. Not whatto feel, but rather how to think and why of the matter. That’s it. So easy to say; so hard to practice in society today. Simply improving quality of our thought via the critical thinking process; there is, for lack of a better descriptor, no critical depth to our thought.
Why can’t we…IMPEACHMENT! Aside from perhaps being a touch startled by my outburst, admit it. You just felt a strong emotion: for, against, don’t care, or irritated at me. When our emotions rise, our fight or flight mechanism kicks in. It has been said that when emotionally charged, our IQ level drops by up to 20 points. Emotions – while important in their own way – make…us…dumber, in practice.
THAT is the only true measure of IQ. What we actually do with it. If our EQ is low and our emotions get the best of us, our IQ is largely irrelevant. To have the ability to critically think is to have the ability to control our emotions. To control our emotions, we must – and I cannot underscore this point firmly enough – control our thinking. That is ultimately the only way we and society will flourish.
Lack of Critical Thinking and its Impact
I see dead people, walking around without meaning or aspiration or desire for accountability, accepting what they see without noticing it is actually the base minimum or even retrograde. We are so much more than what we have become. Everywhere, lack of critical thinking abounds, and we each personally bear the brunt of the resulting unnecessary pains. To detail but five of many examples:
* Education (Truth) – Indoctrination U, the essence of “what” over “how” and “why”
· Teaching what to think may work for some now, but sows the seeds of authoritarianism
· What happens in 10 – 50 years when generations of students must decide issues?
* Entertainment (Soul) – Subvert quality with UNinnovative tech = mediocrity (Matrix vs. TROS)
· Storytelling is non-existent choosing monetary over creative (e.g. Disney Star Wars)
· What does a dumbed-down population do when trained to have low aspirations?
* Investing (Safety) – Strategies/practices stuck in 1990s (as if we cannot catch up with progress)
· Why are turnover/taxes/commission still important? Why not HIGH return/LOW risk?
· Like to live a better life and retire earlier/richer? It IS possible. What’s stopping you?
* Justice (Society) – In Family Courts, 20% men “lose all” in life (i.e. wealth, social, children)
· Low evidence, easy filing (80% by women / get 90% custody), unaccountable, no lawyer
· With 40% kids having no father / men now withdrawing, how does society survive?
* Politics (Control) – Won’t touch this one, but this segment lacks critical thinking in spades!
· We don’t get the leaders we deserve; we get the leaders demand; our demands are low
· Exasperated yet by enormous unsustainable negative financial and social consequences?
It is perhaps important here to take a moment to note that NONE of this conversation is inherently political…yet. We’ll see about that. While we all have our views, critical thinking can be employed by anyone across the political spectrum to create a healthier progress. Not nebulous talking points, but a true improvement within constraints of inherent limitations, mutual Constitution, and human nature.
Why is this Happening and Amplifying Ubiquitously?
Not all “progress” is actually progress. The “inevitable” historical march to greater human liberty is a long, basically straight line, but – oh boy – does it detour just a tad from time to time. We are once again at one of those times. No, I’m not talking Trump, Democrats, or vitriol – merely symptoms of 100-year paradigm struggles: e.g. Our Ages, Amendments, Globalization, Demographics, and Societal Design.
100 years of shattering changes = affluence killer of minds. What does not change though is human nature: sloth. We emote, not critically think. We justify our ego, not critically think. We confirm our bias, not critically think. We then pat ourselves and those around us on the back for having done so. Is it any wonder such broad and pervasive societal inequities and personal degradations exist?
The phenomenon of the lack of critical thinking is almost universal now and accelerating over the cliff. We still have the power though to right our ship. It HAS been done before at unique moments in time. The framers of the Declaration of Independence did so, at risk to far more than just their fortunes. We MUST now purposefully move beyond emotional opinion, return to critical thinking, and ACT.
The Next Vital Step
The quality of our lives does not turn solely on WHAT we FEEL, but rather on HOW we THINK. The how and why of life, not the what. Think! Critically think. Nike was right. Just do it. A brave solution so simple, all can do it. If you do it right though, it will not always be comfortable. I suspect most of the time, it won’t be at all…which is possibly why we choose the easy path now instead, most every time.
“All that is ours to decide is what to do with the time that has been given us,” so the wizard Gandalf told his ephemeral ward Frodo. Do we continue on our path of irrational mediocrity? Do wander about as affluent emotional zombies buying what others tell us? Or, do we take a divergent Renaissance into critical thinking? It has and will again make all the difference, this time in our time – if we demand it.
It’s high time we each here and in society at large finally step up – today, right now – and really critically think again. Time to start thinking for sake of ourselves, our family, our community, our world. This is our mandate as individuals, citizens, and souls. So I leave the challenge with you. Will you use your considerable IQ yourself and to teach how to critically think to create a truly better world, starting now?