Critical Thinking: The OTHER "National Deficit?"
In the mornings, I park slightly outside downtown and walk the last 10 minutes or so, to avoid parking hassles.
On my way to work, I periodically pass a particular car-- a fellow commuter, I suppose-- who has a bumper sticker on their car that reads:
"Critical Thinking: The OTHER National Deficit"
Something about that rings alarmingly true.
Where do we go from here...?
I think about education in the US these days; the way schools seem to be more about teaching kids to become reciting parrots that can pass standardized multiple choice tests to meet city/county graduation quotas... but do they actually teach the kids to think for themselves? How to reason? How to solve real world problems?
I think about the "soup" that passes for "entertainment," and it it feels like it not only caters to the lowest common denominator, but every year the "mean" gets just a little it lower. The phrase "mindless drivel" comes to mind.
I think about the late teen girls who were in my store a few months ago and decided they wanted to buy a little art print for a friend as a gift. They sincerely tried to understand how to divide payment between the three of them using cash... but ended up getting "lost" to such a degree they HAD TO charge the $16.35 sale to a debit card.
Then I think about something a shrewd professor of History at the University of Texas once told me: The desire of the powers that be is to keep voters as ignorant and "asleep" as possible, so they don't question the status quo. Because when you question the status quo, changes could happen, and the balance of power could swing away from the puppetmasters who are pulling the strings.
Let us not forget how to think, folks... because our future depends on it. At least if we want to keep any freedoms, at all. We cannot let the dumbing down continue to happen!
What do YOU think? Is there a lack of critical thinking in modern society? Does it seem like kids in school are no longer taught how to reason and think? Do you think "someone" is trying to purposely keep the population in a state of "non-thinking?" Or does that sound like crazy "conspiracy theory" stuff? Can you think of other examples of non-thinking? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
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Created at 180210 00:44 PST
"but do they actually teach the kids to think for themselves? How to reason? How to solve real world problems?"
Judging by the preponderance of comments on my posts....I'd say absolutely not! :-)
And I think that the situation has evolved far beyond where it was when your History professor made his observation. I suspect that a culling of the herd is now intended.
I expect you may be right... and I have heard others talk about the "culling of the herd" idea, but I find myself questioning which herd we're talking about. A lot of western nations are already "culling themselves" by reaching a negative growth rate.
Greece, for example... the Greek population has been declining for a while and is evidently forecast to do so for a while. Japan will lose an estimated 40 million off its population in the next 50 years. So what kind of culling will it be, I wonder? Is it already happening? Are the people in the "Tinfoil Hat Brigade" who are hiding from chemtrails actually onto something?
I keep thinking about the movie "Idiocracy" and wondering who stand to benefit from all the intelligence being sucked out of the population, and only the mindless sheeple are left behind. It seems like a short-sighted objective because who's going to run the show when the last brain dies?
I haven't seen "Idiocracy", but I have read C. S. Lewis’ 1946 novel That Hideous Strength. It was about the new technocratic elite. His argument was that the elite’s quest for power is at bottom satanic.
I conjecture that anyone who is not witness to a deliberate dumbing down of the population, and a deliberate weakening of family ties, and national cultures, probably suffers from just those efforts already beyond redemption.
Another eye opener for me as to what an ideological "elite" is capable of, and actually will do, was the book Masters of Death by Richard Rhodes.
"In Masters of Death, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen’s role in the Holocaust. These “special task forces,” organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than 1.5 million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar.
These massive crimes have been generally overlooked or underestimated by Holocaust historians, who have focused on the gas chambers. In this painstaking account, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes profiles the eastern campaign’s architects as well as its “ordinary” soldiers and policemen, and helps us understand how such men were conditioned to carry out mass murder. Marshaling a vast array of documents and the testimony of perpetrators and survivors, this book is an essential contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust and World War II."
https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Death-SS-Einsatzgruppen-Invention-Holocaust/dp/0375708227/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518300868&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Einsatzsgruppen
Perhaps the collective downfall we suffer from is assuming that any "ideological elite" ultimately has their philosophy based in some version of rational sanity and long term survival. We look at things and "excuse" them to some degree, on the reasoning that "There HAS to be a good reason why they are doing this?"
More and more, I come to think that "because they can" might be the only reason, and THEY are no more capable of critical thinking than any of the ostensible sheeple they might be executing... failing to see that their very actions are also their own death warrant. And maybe they just don't care.
However the evil 'they' manipulate us, it is always up to us - the masses - individually and collectively. History shows that the majority can bring about change if it works together.
I think most people feel like it is futile to think about things too much because they can't do anything to change them...that any action they take is a drop in the corporate and political ocean.
Personally, I think the cure for apathy is to take an interest in your immediate life - to live consciously - and to hope that your example spreads to others. Vote with your dollar - pay attention to what you spend your money on and ask yourself it you want to support what it represents.
In a sense, I think a lot of "non-thinking" happens as a result of the powers that be creating systems that leave us isolated; even if it's just "digital isolation."
If we are eternally living "inside the game interface" it means we are NOT out there, looking around, and truly noticing (and questioning) why things in the world are so messed up.
I agree that the best thing we can do is to simply "wake up" on an individual level and make the changes we believe are right. There is no "they" and no "movement" that's magically going to rise up and save up. WE are that movement. And when enough take action... then maybe change will happen.
HOW do you kick "Big Oil" in the teeth? Walk to work...
Schools never promote critical thinking to the degree mature adults want. The mission of schools is to make children memorize the answers the government wants them to have, before they are out in the world and they need to think on their own.
Most end up following the herd since all they were given is parroted answers to questions they never filtered on their own. And with the internet answering instantly any question they might have, they never calculate or measure something on their own either.
I believe you are precisely right-- and it's getting worse because parents have to spend more and more time working, merely to keep afloat and so they have less time to teach their children how to think.
The recent "low point" I experienced was the three young women at our gallery, buying a small $15.00 print, and they literally could not figure out how to use some $1's, $5's and $10's to divide the payment equally among the three of them, using (more than enough) the money they had.
Parents aren't always the best source of tutoring; especially when they themselves are not well educated or educated properly.
A third type of teachers are the priests, who as silly as their worldview is, they at least give children a moral code more important than memorizing useless dates and names.
In my opinion, phychologists make the best teachers, since they answer the individual questions of every patient, instead of pumping him with prepared answers from some book. But most people think you are crazy to need one, and they can be fairly expensive, so good luck there.
Another good topic, denmarkguy. I do think critical thinking is lacking in modern society, but I believe it’s by design. We’ve become a society of consumers. We are trained to continually buy products, watch sports etc and not question or think critically, IMHO.
Unfortunately, I end up at much the same conclusion: "Ignorance by design." I'm tempted to use the term "stupidity," but I have met plenty of smart people who nonetheless have no idea how to think for themselves. But they can use Google like a whizz, but have no functional idea of how to check the veracity of something by thinking it through.
Yes, we're consumers. Which is a whole different "hobby horse" of mine, because it's yet another manifestation of mindlessness. As (largely) a non-consumer, I am almost regarded as an "enemy of the state." And if I "dare" to question the Holy Grail of Capitalism... WATCH OUT! Things start flying for my head...
I think that critical thinking is a skill that is not so regarded in traditional public schooling...and it's a real shame.
There's so much opportunity for critical thought from young people...resources at the finger tips. The tools are here to support and cultivate great long terms success....and I think the amount of platforms available to share good stuff is at all time highs.
I'm optimistic that it's possible to get to a point where we've simply outgrown the public system education model....and new support structures are developed to hone in on children's best development.
It does sadly seem like a "dying art." I wish there were more attention paid to such basic skills as just "problem solving." Here you are, facing some challenging situation... how do you find answers and make an intelligent and informed choice, based on the available information.
Nobody seems to care. And the cynic in me keeps thinking that people are being taught that the answer to everything is "whatever FEELS good." And that usually involves the sale of some product or substance...
I have a small measure of optimism with the idea that make home schooling will make some inroads... on the other hand, the state doesn't like having its control mechanisms fooled with...
I hear you.
'Radical Unschooling' is an interesting concept that seems to have picked up some small level of traction with rather extraordinary results.
What I find interesting about the 'radical unschooling' approach is that the basic principles seem to be rooted in common sense....in a very natural kind of way....where we have a 'natural learning ability'...and our ability to develop such skills/abilities is quite 'normal/natural'
Don't about united school and colleges, but here in our region i think we are not producing genius mind who are aware of critical thinking. Mostly people learn these skills while doing job. School are run to earn money. A student who learn like a parrot get good result/marks. even use of apps google and other tools reduce student skill of thinking.
In many cases, that would be true, too. Oddly enough, there's a conflict between running schools to "make money" and the fact that well-educated thinking individuals are also needed in order for companies to make money.
It's also true that more and more people end up with skills that are "looking things up" rather than learning things.
Exactly
The schools do not make us think, they just turn us into machines to qualify certain tests.
We just accept what is given to us without even thinking.
I'm really glad i found this post..
And now that we have awareness of what's happening, it also becomes our task to find a way out of this pattern... by educating ourselves in the ways of the world, and questioning those who would control us by keeping us ignorant.
Yah,we shouldn't accept everything as it is.
exellant thinking dear @denmarkguy thanks for shareing your exprerience
daily experience denmarkguy
Such a thought full post...
I believe that they(powerfuls, people holding the strings) are giving us sleeping pills to keep us asleep.
Sleeping pill like electronic media, print media and the current economic system, all of these are diversions to keep us away from looking at the bigger picture.