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