Are We Becoming Afraid to Think?

by Dave Kahle

         I’m afraid for the future of our country because it appears we are afraid to think. It’s not just Covid-19 and the reaction to it.  And it is not just the recent riots and looting.  It’s much deeper than that.

I’m afraid because I believe that the discipline of thinking before we act – in every circumstance and level of society – is rapidly disappearing.

In its place, we are witnessing a whole host of alternatives.

It is like thousands of years of human development have been shrugged to the side, and a new ethic of rushing to conclusions with little objective basis has replaced it.  We are regressing to the Middle Ages.

         It has permeated our society at every level.  The most visible non-thinkers are those who we would expect to be solidly committed to rational thought – the national politicians in Washington. The idea of calmly considering evidence from both sides of an issue and then making a thoughtful decision evidently has no currency in our sadly partisan environment.

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         We would expect mature, educated men and women whom we have elected to represent us to bring the best thinking to their decision making.  Instead, we see instance after instance of decisions being in a mode that is the polar opposite of what they should be.  Instead of rationally and calmly assessing the facts, they proceed with a predetermined conclusion based on an emotional agenda.  The process of good governance has been knocked back hundreds of years.

         Actions based on emotional reasons, devoid of any pretense of intellectual discipline, have been the cause of countless instances of human suffering and injustice.  Think of the millions of Hitler youth, for example, where the emotional pressure to go along with the masses was strong enough to bury rational thought.  Did one become a Ku Klux Klan member, for example, because of rational thought, or because of an emotional payback?  Look at the disaster in Venezuela, as another example.  Is there a rational defense of socialism somewhere in its background, or did it derive from an emotional payback for power-hungry politicians?

         Where is the intellectual leader of the Antifa phenomena?  Or is it another instance of emotional payback supporting actions that cannot be defended rationally?

And there are thousands of college students who... READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE.

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Are You Significant?

While there is a degree of significance to be achieved though one’s family, my focus in this article is on a higher level of significance. Having “notable worth or influence” implies that significance of that level is relatively rare. People take note of it.

         Suppose you could lay a foundation of significance with your family, and then reached out to ‘matter” to a larger world.  Suppose you could seek significance in your career and your business.