It's not a forbidden drug or a dangerous chemical, but it is something that has been used by the greatest philosophers for centuries: trivium.
While it may sound like some kind of prescription medication, trivium isn’t a drug, but is instead simply a method of defining incorrect thinking, or a way to categorize the common mistakes in logical thought known as logical fallacy.
9-11; My Introduction to Trivium
Before September 11, 2001, I had personally never heard of trivium. As a victim of the USA Public School System, any scientific approach to logical thinking was not taught in any of the classes that I attended during my 12-year indoctrination into society, so the word ‘trivium’ was not part of my vocabulary. Then, 9-11 happened.
With Tragedy Came Logic
Following the infamous 9-11, 2001 tragedy in New York City, the internet’s forums and chatrooms turned into battle zones as the conspiracy theories and facts were presented by the curious and the concerned, and while half of the posters seemed to believe that the official story was questionable, the other half viciously condemned anyone who questioned the TV media version of the disaster.
With so much chaos in the dialogue for so many years, many of the actual facts about 9-11 seemed to have been lost in the confusion, and as a result, the whole truth about that event may never be known.
Propaganda and Obfuscation
Looking back logically, the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City appears to have been a dark ritual which was orchestrated to look like a botched inside job. With the official story being loaded with errors and discrepancies, it was a bit too obvious to many observers.
It was as if clues were left in plain sight in order to create chaos by then manipulating rifts and division in the population, manufacturing arguments and passionate debates around the facts and the rumors of conspiracy that emerged from that culture-wide confusion.
TRIVIUM: Recommended By 4 out of 5 Internet Trolls
The years following September 2001 thus became a time when the common internet trolls began teaching the trivium to those of us who had never heard of it.
Many emotional volleys during that time were fueled by those who posed as purveyors of logic and reason, as well as by those who skewed the grammar so that logic and reason would be obstructed and delayed in the resulting rhetoric.
Enter The Trivium
Trivium is a word that suggests three of something, and just as the prefix tri in the word ‘tricycle’ refers to the tricycle’s three wheels, the tri in trivium refers to three thought processes that will lead to logical conclusions; grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
The trivium is simply a method to discover common flaws in thinking, so that those flaws can be avoided in order to attain true knowledge in a given subject.
When the most common mistakes in thinking can be categorized, and a more coherent manner of thinking can be outlined, then logical conclusions can more easily be reached.
If we imagine that our brains are like computers, then the processing of information that we take into our brains might be described in a similar fashion as the description of a simple computer:
GRAMMAR: This is the data that comes into the device in the form of words, with words and their true meaning being the foundation of ideas and thoughts that are cast into the world.
LOGIC: The words and ideas are then processed inside of the computer or brain, and that is where those words can be defined and categorized into coherent notions.
RHETORIC: This is the discussion of that logic, or the brain/computer churning out the information that has been logically organized and then put into a useful and coherent language, or rhetoric.
This can also be seen as input, processing, and output.
A Few Examples of Logical Fallacy
A logical fallacy might be the result of emotions overtaking reason, and sometimes the passion that an individual feels during arguments and debates can lead to rather illogical reactions as they struggle to express a thought or to communicate an idea through such thickly hanging emotional barriers around a topic.
While mistakes in the thinking process can happen accidentally, sometimes logical fallacies can also be used as weapons against the unwary, and the conscious use of logic as a way to confuse an opponent can be just as common as the accidental emotional mistakes in thinking that might arise during a debate.
Some of the most common logical fallacies which are used as a way to skew the facts around a topic are still common today on the internet:
The Strawman Argument: The strawman is a method of misrepresenting or exaggerating an opponent’s argument, making that opponent’s position or platform easier to tear down.
Ad Hominem: The ad hominem fallacy is when an attack on the opponent’s character or personal traits is used in an attempt to weaken that opponent’s position in a debate.
Appeal to Emotion: The use of emotional manipulation in the place of logical argument, as if to substitute facts with an emotional reaction to the topic.
It doesn’t take long to begin recognizing these fallacies in the dialogue of the internet and media, and with practice we can use the trivium method to correct our own thinking.
Logic and facts are not always popular though, and there is the chance that if we begin showing others how wrong they are, and become experts at pointing out the flaws in their logic, then we might unintentionally become the internet trolls ourselves.
It’s Reality Time
We are now living in a time when all truth is emerging, good and bad, and no longer will information be able to hide from the group mind in obfuscation. Logic and reason will be more useful than ever as reality is shown to all, and with a bit of trivium, we might maneuver through the falsehoods and lies that remain in the way of our mental liberation with greater agility.
With our logic, we can help to bring the consciousness of humanity into focus, so that we can agree on what is factual and begin to embrace the reality that we may have missed, while also eliminating those facets of reality that were illogical and unreasonable.
for more information on the trivium, here is a link to the Wikipedia description: The Trivium
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