America's True Crisis

I think we all agree that there's a real crisis facing America today – but I submit to you that it's not the one you think.  Despite the endless discussions in the media, our crisis is not really the economy.  Not the job losses, not the stock market, not the banking bailouts.  Neither is it energy policy, nor healthcare, nor any of the other issues du jour.  No, these issues, although important in themselves, are only the symptoms of the real crisis – the one that underlies and exacerbates all the others.

The real crisis is more silent and subtle.  You haven't seen it talked about on the news, or read about it in the newspapers. As Rush stated in his recent CPAC appearance, our crisis is not an issue of policy.  But I submit that neither is it an issue of the right candidate, or of clear elucidation of principles, which were his emphasis. Rather, it is an even more fundamental issue – the foundation upon which principles must be built – and it makes all other discussion irrelevant until it is fixed.

The crisis, simply stated, is this:  Americans don't know what to think, because Americans don't know how to think.  Public discussions and debates today are stuck in eternal bickering and petty rhetorical gamesmanship because there is a gaping hole – a shocking, drive-a-semi-through-it sized hole – in the ability of the average American to think clearly and critically.  That is, most people are unable to critically analyze what they hear from politicians, the media, or their friends, in any significant way.  Given any particular statement by a speaker, they cannot identify the assumptions that necessarily lie behind it, nor the implications that must follow from it.  It doesn't occur to them to question the truth of an argument's premises, nor can they identify flaws or fallacies in a speaker's logic.  They don't know how to ask probing questions that get beyond the most rudimentary rhetorical generalizations and evasions.  And in the absence of these skills, their decision-making process is guided by emotionalism rather than a desire for the truth.   And this is what makes our current situation so incredibly perilous.

This crisis – our collective inability to think critically – is truly at the core of America's problems. I believe it must be tackled first, before victory can ever come from a clear elucidation of principles.  Try this mental exercise:  for the next 24 hours, in every news story or radio show you encounter, stop focusing your attention on the "issue" being discussed and start focusing on the way in which it is discussed.  It will become quickly and shockingly clear that America is not going to be fixed by clear and coherent arguments.  The lack of "right thinking" is the best and only explanation for how a silver-tongued Pied Piper could lead an enchanted public down the road to their enslavement with a simple, pretty tune that is utterly devoid of content.  It is why whatever chorus still exists of clear conservative voices – people like Rush and Newt – fail to wake the masses from their stupor.

Quote of the millenium

I came across the most amazing quote recently.  It is worth reading every word – it sums up our current situation more concisely and powerfully than I could ever hope to.  See if you can guess who said it, and when:

"Everywhere we encounter nothing but faulty minds, who have practically no ability to discern the truth.  They view everything from the wrong angle; they are satisfied by the worst reasons and want to satisfy others with them.  They let themselves be carried away by the slightest appearances; they are always in excess and extremes; they have no grasp for holding firmly to the truths they know because they are attached to them more by chance than solid enlightenment.  Or else they insist on nonsense with such obstinacy that they hear nothing that could set them straight.  They decide boldly about what they do not know, what they do not understand, and what perhaps no one has ever understood.  They fail to distinguish one statement from another, or they judge the truth of things only by the tone of one's voice:  whoever speaks easily and soberly is right; anyone who has some trouble explaining himself or who exhibits some passion is wrong.  This is all they know.
    This is why there are no absurdities so unacceptable that they do not find approval.  Anyone who sets out to trick the world is sure to find people who will be happy to be tricked, and the most ridiculous idiocies always encounter minds suited to them."

Can America in 2009 be better described?  You may be surprised, then, that the above was written by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole, French philosophers and theologians in the introduction of their 1662 textbook on logic, or as they subtitled their work, "The Art of Thinking."

In other words, our crisis is not new.  It is as old as the mind of man.  But until we recognize and attack the true source of our current problems, we cannot and will not solve them – not the economy, not energy, not healthcare.

Frustrated thinkers in a blind culture

If you've read this far, then you, like me, have probably felt intensely frustrated by the last few years of political and social discourse.  You have probably tried in vain, like so many of us, to reach others with common sense and an appeal to American foundational principles – and felt confused, frustrated, and eventually demotivated by your inability to get others to see the obvious.

As a one-time teacher of graduate-level mathematical logic, I have long had a passion for rhetorical analysis – picking apart speeches and interviews, looking beyond the feel-goodisms and asking probing questions that try to reach the heart of an issue, beyond the bland pronouncements typically spewed by politicians.

But such probing and logical analysis are jaw-droppingly absent from our culture – both in the media and the masses.  What we have today is a people who will believe anything.  And a media that, ignorantly or intentionally, echoes a general public's complete inability to pursue truth – indeed, that reinforces a complete aversion to it, in favor of the pursuit of emotionalism and sensationalism.

A new Renaissance

What we need to get America back on track – what is needed for any healthy representative republic – is a public that:

• Intently seeks truth, and can recognize and reject propaganda and manipulation
• Uses the tools of common sense, sound reasoning, and historical experience to make wise judgments
• Demands the same standards from their leaders and the media.

I am not a politician or a policy wonk.  I don't thrive on pondering how to restructure the health care industry, or how to craft the best stimulus bill.  But I am a thinker, an analyst, and a teacher.  And I know as certainly as I breathe that what we need right now is a new Renaissance in critical thinking skills.  The conservative cause desperately needs a supporting movement that seeks to teach the basic skills of right thinking to a wrong-thinking public – a supporting cast of teachers, writers, media members and analysts, who will work diligently to repair the foundation of correct thought upon which conservative political leaders and policymakers can build.

Passing 40 years in age – and reflecting on what that really means – can do wonders for one's clarity of mind and perspective.  I have been interested in politics since my mid 20's.  I've followed the issues, voted, and written letters to my Congressmen for almost 20 years.  But I'm tired of shouting from the sidelines.  It's time to join the fight in earnest.  Whatever talents each of us have graciously been given, we can no longer afford to squander them in interested but idle observation.  We need to use them to advance what is right and true, energetically and diligently.  My passion is to teach the principles of right thinking, to both young and old.  If yours is the same, or if you see the need for such a movement, I'd love to hear from you.

Coming next:
- An Epidemic of Wrong Thinking
- Principles of Right Thinking
- Creating a Right-Thinking Public