My relationship with critical thinking has recently been on the rocks. Every day I read the L.A. Times. As I sat and read one morning not two weeks ago I began to wonder. I wondered if life would be easier if I just didn't care what was going on. Would I be less stressed out, would I enjoy life more? Would I agree with people who say the a National Health Care System will "pull the plug" on my aging grandmother, and not go crazy and call these people every expletive under the sun. Life became more and more stressful for me, especially during the presidential election of 2008. One would think that since we are in the "information" age (A.K.A. The Dis-Information Age) that we would be able to sift through the crazy talk and get to the bottom the issue or debate. Seems this isn't the case. I mean, if people took 20 minutes away from watching their "American Idol", or "Dancing with the Stars" I truly believe that we would be in a far better situation than we are now. To have a working, successful democracy people need to be informed and at least have a general idea of what the ramifications are if they vote either way. This is why I believe critical thinking should be a skill that everyone should learn and master early on in life.
I began to critically think around the election of 2000. I asked my dad how people can just believe someone without asking any questions when it is so blatant that he/she is lying through their teeth! He told me they aren't critical thinkers, they are sheep. Their lives consist of waking up, going to work, eating dinner, going to bed. The news they do get is from "shock jocks" trying to get the best ratings by dividing people on the most basic levels. Now, this is just a generalization, but I understood the example he was giving. From then on I began to question everything. I questioned what I read in textbooks, what I heard from politicians, and especially what cable news said. I began a personal quest to become as critical a thinker as I possibly could. This leads us to current time. A time when I believe that critical thinking is at an all time low. Unfortunately from what I see and read, people are willing to believe anyone who promises them the moon. This is quite a scary outlook if you ask me, but, that's just the critical thinker in me. Anyway, on to what I believe this class can and will do for me and my passion for writing.
I believe this class will help me organize my many thoughts and put them down on paper as one cohesive idea that flows from beginning to end. I truly hope this class will heighten my ability to be a critical thinker. Most of all, I want this class to teach me to refine my writing skill so that when I write people will listen. That is, if people still read in the future.
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Eric, I would have to say that by the sound of it, your critical thinking is far from being on the rocks. All of the wondering' you mention sounds like it is actually a form of thinking. You are questioning all of the information that you are taking in. You wonder if life would be easier if you just didn't care. It sounds to me that you pose yourself this question because you do care, as do most of us. It is my belief that not caring requires more effort than caring. Unless you find a wonder drug that will stop you from feeling I think part of life is caring. Life is hard sometimes and it would be easier to remove oneself from difficult situations, but most of the time this is not possible, we have to deal with them. Removing ourselves emotionally, is called denial and it is possible but in my opinion that is no way to live and be happy.
ReplyDeleteAs for less stress; you've heard the saying, "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger"? I think there is more happiness when we triumph over adversity and struggles (and life is shock-full of these). And honestly, I don't think triumph is possible without stress. I don't believe we can truly be happy when we become complacent. It may be necessary, when there are forces beyond our control, but then we'll always yearn for the "what-ifs".
In this information age, I think we suffer from information overload. Does anybody actually have time to sift through it all? I think that is why people would just rather rely on what the media feeds them, say during elections. This way we exonerate ourselves when we make a bad choice.
But don't even get me started on politics. I can summarize my view on the subject with one thought; the only good politician is probably not a politician. My cynicism has grown to the point where I can almost say that all politicians are corrupt. So when it comes to elections I don't think being analytical will aid us in electing the better but rather the lesser of two evils. And even when we believe we have made a bad choice, there is really no way to know. But we must all realize that even when we don't make a choice, we have made a choice.
For some people it is easier to not make a choice or rather an informed choice. Making an informed choice requires work. I think a lot of people would rather not put in the effort. I think that is why reality shows are so popular. These people don't want to exercise their mental faculties; they just want to be entertained. And the sad part is; I think this is how most of them carry on their daily lives. I agree that it is a scary outlook. I think whishing more people just gave a "thought" is wishful thinking. Hey, but at least it's thinking, right?
I too was blown away by the last couple of elections, but especially the 2008 election. I could not believe how effective the scare-tactics and name-calling were, and now I see the same thing happening with the health care plan. I consider myself a pretty open minded person, and I do enjoy a good debate now and then so I wouldn't mind hearing conflicting opinions if they were based in fact. It seems though that anyone can make up some catchy slogan *ahem like death panels*, scream it out at random intervals and get Fox news to play it every hour, on the hour. It really does make me cynical to see how easily people are influenced without thinking for themselves. We are reading Animal Farm for this class which touches on that, but I'm reminded of Orwell's 1984. When I first read that book it seemed incredulous that people could be so sheeplike. I watch the news today and I feel like we are now living in that novel!
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