Get Ready For Adversity Now!
Posted by Zenphamy 10 years, 3 months ago to Philosophy
A really well written commentary on the subject of this country's current state. Worth a minute or so the read and contemplate.
SOURCE URL: http://www.freemansperspective.com/adversity/
Couple that with the fact that in order to teach critical thinking the instructor must also have the humility to lead an honest discussion. Indoctrination doesn't lead to critical thinking and neither do irrational or illogical positions or policies - something our current government is rife with!
To sum up, our current leaders in government don't want critical thinking because it exposes their irrational ideologies!
Let me offer one differentiation, though... "respect for authority," like all other kinds of "respect" must be earned, not trained-in as a 1984-like rote exercise.
My mom used to chant, "respect your elders" or "respect the government, police, President," or whatever.
And it didn't take me long to wonder, "why?... shouldn't I respect them only after they've EARNED it?"
Unless "respect" in that context really means "obey," and that's another thing... :)
Waiting till middle grades or high school is too late. A child that is taught how to learn can overcome any obstacle and can move on to a full adult life. Without critical thinking skills, it's just learning by rote.
As to respect, I was first taught to 'earn' respect for myself. At the same time I was taught manners. The two made a logical connection that carried on to others I interacted with, whether child, adult on the street, police, teachers, the world in general. It was simply a way of life.
But who knows? I can hope. :)
When I first heard of CC, I thought it was a great idea... a uniform testing system which would allow ALL students, and hence, all school systems, to be compared based on RESULTS... the achievement levels of the students.
Some friends of mine paid tons of money to a "well-respected" parochial school for their kids in Silicon Valley. When they moved to Houston, the kids needed tutoring and LOTS of work just to catch up to local grade level.
CC would have made that kind of problem visible long ahead of time. All the other crap about CC that people are bitching about are things that are probably administrative or personal or bureaucratic red herrings. The value would be in comparing how well ALL schools, and even home-schooling, are preparing their students.
And, of course, that's just one of many issues that impact the results, too. It is not a simple issue!
My mother-in-law tells story after story of the kindergarten classes she teaches and how inevitably there is one kid that really causes problems for the entire rest of the class. I think the bigger thing that would improve learning from an administrative point of view is simply not to put up with the students - or their parents - who make it difficult for everyone else.
I believe the key is in the "unwilling" in your first statement, ignorance is bliss to some after all.
Very interesting article and thank you for sharing.
I concluded that the lack of CT is possibly one of the root causes of many of the things we complain about and that pervade our society.
I started http://www.plusaf.com/criticalthinking.h... some years back and have been tinkering with writing a book explaining my take on it.
One good thing seems to be that, in the past year or two, the term seems to be appearing a LOT MORE than, say, five years ago. I sense that as a good thing. Time will tell...
Oh, and the Helen Keller quote at the end of the link is a favorite. And one of the favorites of Werner Erhart's "est Training" of some decades gone by... he elaborated on it by asking his "followers," whether they'd REALLY like a "safe, predictable life." If anyone said they did, he offered the alternative of having most of your organs removed, floating your body in a tank of tepid salt water and having machines take care of all your bodily needs.
Safe? Possibly. Desirable? You've got to be kidding!
Interesting website - I liked the HP story concerning water purification and the Warren Buffett quote on your Home page. It has always disturbed me how the media has a tendency to rile up the masses and then drop the stories, even after they have discovered their information was in error.
I also noticed you hit upon the "why" and "how" of critical thinking and learning in general. It might be of greater benefit for learning in schools to tie learning to implementation, perhaps in real world projects that are of importance to the student. This might make the "why" important which might increase the motivation to push through the "how."
The Adversity article was the first time I saw that particular Helen Keller quote which I found interesting. One of the important choices new entrepreneurs must face is their willingness to leave behind their safe, secure (if such a thing truly exists) routine to venture into unknown. After making this choice myself, which seemed difficult at the time, I now look back and believe the seemingly safe, secure life is of greater risk as it's really an illusion and limiting in many ways.
I believe that most "problems" today are dealt with by proposing a solution and then implementing it and pretty much doing no follow-up to see if things really got better.
I recommend first looking at the "problem" as it's described, then FIRST asking "well, WHY DOES THAT happen?"
That usually stops the complainer in their tracks, but sometimes they come up with a "because.... xxxxxxx" response, to which I suggest repeating the "Well, why does THAT HAPPEN?"
I believe, and have seen in real situations, that if you can pursue that process five or six times, you either get to the TRUE ROOT CAUSE (or one of several) of the originally stated problem, OR the other person will go into a do-loop, saying the reason for that was the same as the reason for the previous "level." And that leads to no answer at all. The real answer is probably still another layer or two deeper.
I love to do this with virtually any "big deal issue" that I read in the paper or see on the TV.
I think that if more people held up that process to their legislative "leaders" when problems are "addressed" and "solutions" are proposed and immediately implemented, most such problems would be cured in a fairly short time.
Trivial example: SocSec is going broke. List solutions...
And ignore that the problem has been "developing" for scores of years and just about everyone thinks it can be cured by passing one law and all will be well next year.
Rather than gradually replacing the system over the expected working life of employees (say, 40-50 years, nowadays) and PHASING IN a voluntary own-your-own solution where you choose what percentage of your SocSec you want "guaranteed" and what portion you're willing to handle yourself.
Almost nobody thinks that way. I'm lonesome.
Something else that I have found is that sometimes it's easy to get fixated on a preconceived solution that may not be appropriate or as elegant as other solutions. Up-front critical thinking may help in situations such as this.
I suspect you may see rising interest in critical thinking given the unique challenges we are facing, or lets at least hope so :)
I think that IS THE KEY issue, but of course, I'm married to my own wonderful ideas, just like most folks.. :)
I'd like to differentiate iterative design/development, though, from what might be called "iterative problem solving." Iterating a design for better performance, economics or whatever is absolutely necessary and wonderful, but before the next iteration, I believe that figuring out what the REAL PROBLEM IS is as important or more important. It will lead you to (hopefully) the BEST next step in the iteration.
point of comparison: "six-sigma" is really about creating an extremely repeatable process. Once it's repeatable, the next step is iterating out the problems. I know the guy who taught 6-sigma to Motorola. They did not develop it on their own.
Cheers!
http://www.freemansperspective.com/resou...
Usually I pass over this stuff but felt compelled to read it. I quickly became intrigued by the Great Calendar concept and the cycle of civilizations. One passage in particular stood out from the "Decline & Adjustments" phase:
"What people think of as “golden ages” actually occur as a civilization's production begins to decline. As power consolidates in capital cities, great monuments and public works are built, but the sources of production decline.
The more wealth that flows into a capital city, the more impressive are the shows of state grandeur.
The great monuments of Rome were all built during the empire (that is, in the middle-late stage), and not during the republic (the early stage). The same thing happened in Greece, Egypt and in essentially all of the others.
It is also during these stages that things begin to fall apart. With people finding meaning in the state rather than themselves, production falls, birth rates tend to fall, people start grasping rather than creating, rules multiply, and regulations strangle ventures that are not connected to the state. This leads to re-organization like that of Rome from republic to empire.
These reorganizations are often seen as moments of crisis, but such a crisis is more of a surface event than a deep event: since the legitimacy and honor of the state/civilization remains, reorganization is easily accepted by the populace. Some rules will change, but people continue to rely upon the state or civilization for meaning in their lives.
The later parts of this stage feature widespread dependence. These are the eras of bread and circuses, of welfare and 24/7 entertainment, of robotically following accepted paths, of criticizing the few who do not, and of blindness toward everything outside the approved mental framework."
Prior to reading the "Adversity Now" article I wasn't familiar with this site or the Great Calendar and associated phases. I thought you and the others readers might find this of interest as well given that it seems relevant.
Abaco, I couldn't agree more. That's how it was in my days too. And bravo Zen & jrs. You all sound like my kind of people, thinking for yourself! And yes, I fear we are residents of the DARK AGES. Indoctrination is taking us to a very scarey place & it just keeps getting worse. Why can we not learn from our history & I mean our real history, not what is being taught & rammed down students throats. What's worse? The teachers don't even know real history & the parents don't either. So, who or how are they expected to know the truth? Let's pray they have grandparents & that they will listen to them.
Yup, kind of a pipe dream, as this is one of the worst countries at how we look down on the elderly, as they could learn so much more than in a classroom!
Concerning communication - Consider that it may not be an either/or type situation. For example, I have relationships where I only communicate face-to-face, some only via phone, and yet others that I have never met in person and it has strictly been over instant messaging. In some instances the global IM relationships are stronger even though I had never met or spoken to the person in the physical world. I am finding that in many instances one must match the medium to the individual. Communication itself may be evolving.