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“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.” - Christopher Hitchens

 “There is a sucker born every minute” – P.T. Barnum

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Here comes Mr. Ego (big and small versions) -

An observation of mine for some time now is that many people have lost their ability to think critically. Instead they seem to mouth off at will with great confidence and ego satisfaction whatever they have absorbed from the media that suits their personal drives. They believe they are justifiably repeating the ‘absolutely correct’ authoritarian bullsh*t that is handed to them. Unfortunately they believe it to be true … every single word and concept doled out. Why? They have to believe it because to them there is nothing worse than being wrong. For them being wrong is a death sentence. The very thought of it shakes the very foundation of their being. AND – you should listen because they are literally saving you. From who? Yourself and your misguided ways of course. Besides, critical thinking is just too damn hard to accomplish as it requires OBJECTIVE observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making (Note: Spiritual people have an edge here as they also embrace discernment which is the ability to judge well).

So what else is happening?

Some words about Indoctrination –

“Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.” - Richard Dawkins

Technology is a wonderful but it is taking control. Human one to one and one to group socialization is lost to iPhones and other tech gadgets that not only make it “easy” to get things done but are oh so entertaining. I literally had someone tell me their best friend was their phone and how they would be lost or ‘dead’ without it sending them organizational reminders every hour. To this I say: “get off your lazy ass and rely on your mind and deductible reasoning abilities.

Indoctrination happens through many channels—entertainment, speeches, and censorship––but its main instrument is the school system. Teachers have a captive audience of malleable young minds for several years. They may not have figured out how to make students smart and productive, but they can at least make them submissive and obedient. Teaching the value of free thought matters now more than ever. Unfortunately, most American public schools take the opposite approach. FURTHER - While indoctrination involves pushing a certain opinion, it is also much more. It is the comprehensive effort of passively disseminating a particular viewpoint. The passive aspect is key. People who are indoctrinated with a certain narrative or ideology do not arrive at the intended conclusions through their own thinking, but hear the same thing repeated in a million different ways until they finally take it as unquestionable truth. – Auguste Meyrat   https://thefederalist.com/2018/10/26/public-schools-indoctrinate-kids-without-almost-anyone-noticing/

According to an article in Psychology Today, in the 1990s, Parents began force-feeding infants and toddlers special “educational” DVDs and flash cards in the hopes of taking advantage of unique features of the developing brain to “hardwire genius” by the age of three—or even younger. Since then, it has become increasingly clear that the brain science of “critical periods” and "neural plasticity“ has been grossly misunderstood and that efforts to artifi­cially harness these important features of brain development by accelerating and distorting real-world learning beyond all reason are not producing the promised results.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported, “On average, students make strides in their ability to reason, but because so many start at such a [critical thinking] de­ficit, many still graduate without the ability to read a scatterplot, construct a cohesive argument or identify a logical fallacy”

Scary – if you ‘think’ about it. If you can think about it you might recognize yourself as part of the group that has become a mindless puppet or human/sheep hybrid.

So -

Do you ‘think’ about it?

If you do think about it you just might be concerned with how to un-do what has been done.

From personal experience I have learned that you cannot live a balanced life without engaging critical thinking on a daily basis. What ensues instead is chaos – mindless brain chatter, anxiety and overall dumbing down. Be organized and set goals, allow time for tasks and activities you enjoy, give back a little through service of others, TALK to people and challenge them in efforts to problem solve for the whole and NOT out of attempts at ego satisfaction. And for heaven’s sake challenge your own opinions. Do you really believe them correct enough to shove down the throats of others? Misery might love company but that company doesn’t stick around long.

“Overcoming the very thing that is preoccupied with our self can allow us to bring the best version of that self to the world.” – Shane Breslin

If you ‘think’ about it --- you can do it.

Welcome back to normal.