Dear Reader,
It seems to me that many we all like to read that which agrees with our own ideas and prejudices. We love to see our thoughts echoed in literature, and in the news. Seeing our own wisdom “up close” and others “at a distance” we naturally believe that ours is the best and brightest ideas there are.
We love to point at examples of why we are correct and the “other” is wrong. I am no exception to this. I do believe however that it is incumbent on us to at least look at the world with the perspective of the “other.” When we exercise our minds in this way we open them up to many possibilities. Making our perspective more reasoned and insightful.
We must always however temper our ideas by history and with reason. In this way we don’t fall prey to Francis Bacon’s “Idols of the Theater.” When I hear a pundit argue that facts are not as important as theory, I know that he is guilty of this “mind trap.”
Examples of this type of thinking abounds. Socialists believe that they are right. If history repudiates their theory, it must be that egoists stood in the way, or that Socialism/Communism was poorly applied. If only the right people were put in charge it would work as well as the Socialist believes it will. Instead of changing their theory to fit the facts, it is the facts that must be changed to fit their theory. History should be rewritten to hide the truth so that the revolution can go on.
Other people argue that government is the key to solving the worlds and societies problems. No matter the weight of evidence that government always makes problems worse. The great society programs have led to the destruction of the family in some parts of American society, leading to more poverty and dependence on government largess. More government control of the schools has led to a lowering of test scores and real academic excellence. More war on drugs has led to an explosion of drug use among our teens, and now even children are experimenting with drugs. Taxes and red tape on our corporations has led to the off shoring of jobs. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
We are told that the government just needs a little more money and the problems will be legislated away. Some say that we should grow up and accept blatant corruption in our government, despite the fact that every third world country with a miserable standard of living is rife with corruption.
The Archbishop of Canterbury even said that Britain should institute Sharia Law for Muslims in Britain. Despite the atrocities that it has wreaked upon the world in general and on women in particular. Separate but equal has worked so well in the USA the Archbishop wants to institute it in Britain.
Are we so stupid that we cannot move beyond this paradigm? Perhaps we can open our minds to new possibilities and start trying some new methods of solving our problems. If we don’t, future generations will, they will have no choice.
