Does "Why" Still Matter?

One of the most troubling outcomes of the recent violence in D.C. this week has been lots of empty suits in the media wondering aloud - Why? To anyone who’s been watching the slow, lingering death of critical thinking in our society the answer is increasingly obvious - people are no longer being taught HOW to think. While the media has been self-absorbed with WHAT people appear to believe it seems utterly clueless about WHY. I was NOT one of those 150 million plus individuals who voted for either Joe Biden OR Donald Trump. In fact I voted for Howie Hawkins and, more accurately, Angela Walker. I didn’t vote for them in protest, I voted for them because their views of what this Country should be most closely resemble my own. Most importantly, their views reflected thoughtful consideration of what it would take to move the Nation forward into a bright future which is to say, they weren’t merely uttering platitudes. Unfortunately, as candidates for our Nation’s highest office go, they were all too unique.

Over the past 4 decades it has become increasingly true that the average American does NOT know how to think critically. The average American, as even a brief visit to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.… will show you, knows quite well HOW to express an opinion while proving, almost conclusively, they can’t tell you WHY they hold it. The number of levels on which this should be a concern is impossible to express other than by use of the word - ALL. The group that stormed the Capitol this week was comprised of individuals who’ve helped establish that America is no longer a land where people have, in their estimation, ANY moral duty to carefully investigate verifiable facts, thoughtfully consider what those facts, collectively, mean and make a choice based thereon (with an eye towards what is ultimately best for the Nation). Instead we’ve become a Nation that’s all about “Feelings.” Unless we can effect a permanent change to slavish devotion to our emotions instead of reasoned conclusions the Nation is, unquestionably, doomed.

Feelings and emotions are, ultimately, biochemical responses to various stimuli. They are neither good or evil in and of themselves, they merely are a fact about being a member of homo sapiens. In the final analysis, while we should certainly be aware of and acknowledge our feelings we should not allow them to be a regular basis for important decisions. Unfortunately, as a species we’ve romanticized feelings to an absurd degree. Feelings however are far more akin to a nose, mouth or ears than they are to developing and using our minds to solve real problems in life and the world around us. We make so many decisions predicated on how we “feel” about something or someone that we often wind up in a permanently depressed state as our emotions are allowed (and often encouraged) to occupy and overwhelm every aspect of our lives. Feelings and emotions have value of course but they are NOT how our species has intellectually grown over the centuries. Fear is a particularly good example of a feeling that has value to an organic being while being something upon which we should NOT be making important decisions that require thoughtful analysis. Fear makes us pause and examine our surroundings which can be a very useful thing when it comes to our physical survival. Fear can also be the antithesis of growth if we permit it to be a substantial or primary source of our most important choices.

I’ve opined before about the fact our public schools are, in my experience over the past 20 years, NOT teaching our children to think critically. Instead children are often encouraged to sit as silent vessels for pablum and gibberish proffered as something inherently meaningful when, as Common Core has shown us, regurgitation is the goal. One of the best examples is the deference given to professional liars or, “Politicians” as the media calls them. When such folk started responding to the events at the Capitol this week with "this is not who we are” they were lying (put otherwise, they were not telling THE Truth). Indeed, the Capitol was still under construction during this Nation’s bloody civil war. Anyone who doesn’t realize America is VERY much about resorting to violence to secure a result deemed in the country’s best interests is, frankly, either delusional or an abject liar. What these politicians are really saying is that they support someone other than the person the rioters support.

America has just endured 4 years of a President who governed primarily by appealing to the emotions of his supporters. While I have little hope his replacement will govern differently I have at least developed the idea that maybe the average American is ready for a return to a time when personal responsibility started with realizing it’s very important to FORM an opinion rather than just “having” one. With any luck the American people will demand that critical thinking become once again THE defining quality of our leaders. Indeed, without such leadership, this Nation is not long for this Earth and its future is very, very dark.