We are living in times of having the luxury to have access to more information, data and knowledge then ever before. The paradox thing is, that a bigger souce of information doesn´t mean that the human kind is getting smarter. In fact it seems, we are even more confused then ever before. Stupidity and superficiality are growing like cancer.
Don´t wanna chew again on the obvious fact that facebook and co is bombing us with a shit load of hoax and fake news, fake studies and fake wisdom. We all know. But like our resistance to change the worlds drowning in trash and plastic, we tend to eat the fastfood informations, instead of the wholemeal bread.
We are like that. And I am tired about complaining about that.
The thing that made me wonder is something that I observed a lot about myself. It annoys me and yet, it is so hard to change.
The gullibility of mind. That reading a text is often linked with an advance of trust and believe that what I am reading is right.
Ofcourse if I don´t agree with a theme, if something is totally against my believes and principles, reading will cause resistance.
But the thing is, that a lot of information seem to be plausible and very often the silent twist isn´t obvious to see.
I would even say that nowadays we are flooded by news and informations that are smartly interwoven with the very subjective opinion of the writer/government/etc. We think we just read some facts, while being already pushed into a certain kind of believe and approach.
I catch myself very often to read for example a philosophic essay and am totally enthusiastic about the thoughts and plausibility of reasoning. And years later I read an article about that essay, critical and seen from different perspective. And I have to say: yes, how come I didn´t see that? Blinded by the good writing I didn´t see this very sneaky nasty thing, that was woven inside the very harmless framework.
Happened today. Caught myself again.
So I am sitting here this morning, drinking my coffee and thinking about: HOW TO THINK RIGHT.. HOW TO READ RIGHT?
I wanna share my thoughts with you. As I believe it is as simple as important:
Be critical. Always. Towards what you read and see. And towards yourself. Especially towards yourself. The emotions and feelings you have about an infomation is what makes you believe. And thats what the author will always play with.
Ask yourself the right questions and try to answer them yourself, before you look up opinions about it. And if you wanna use the amazing source of data in Internet to come to an opinion, read more then one. Search all kind of perspectives and think think think..
Never lose sight of your own principles. Question them too. Validate them over and over. Stick to them, as long as you believe you are right. Correct them when you are proven wrong. But never stop to think yourself!
And completing this reflection: let´s teach our kids how to think. Cause we got trained early to swallow “knowledge” and information in school and there are not enough teacher who encourage kids to think themself or how to reflect on the world around. So, it is our own business to give our children the right push. To think, to question, also to question us, the parents. To not just swallow what we tell them or the world tells them.
Hugs, Mimi xox
