GOING ALL THE WAY

The loneliness of the long-distance thinker

A few weeks ago, I wrote that thinking is akin to taking an idea for a walk- on a leash. Just to be clear, ideas are not easily taken for a walk (with or without a leash). Most ideas are unruly and come and go as they please- they run wild like children. When we try to forcibly control them, their spirits are extinguished. Few people have the discipline, strength, or wisdom to take ideas for long walks.

Ideas love to roam the streets and alleyways- but they flourish only on a long leash.

Your mind is far more exquisite than a Lamborghini (or, if you prefer, the Large Hadron Collider that studies the inner workings of the universe). Your mind is a magical flying machine that contains unending universes. Here’s a secret- nothing and nobody can bring you the joy that your own mind can give you.

Your mind is an absolute trip.

The problem is that few understand how it works- and fewer still know how to operate it.

Long Distance Thinking:

So, what do I mean by long-distance thinking and who is a long-distance thinker? Goldfish and infants live for (and in) the moment. Their brains, such as they are, process what’s in front of them, allowing them to respond to temperature, food, touch and other stimuli. Primates and young children have greater capabilities, they have longer memories and can visualize their immediate future- sometimes hours (or days) ahead. By comparison, we human adults are veritable geniuses- able to schedule dinners weeks ahead, save for next year’s vacation, and in some cases even plan for retirement. We make complicated plans with many moving parts and foresee decades into the future.

The cognitive capabilities of human adults might seem impressive- when compared to goldfish, apes, and sixteen-year-olds. However, the fact that we can plan families, careers (and advocate for Justice, Equity, and Peace on Earth), shouldn’t unduly impress us. It is just as biology (and evolution) intended it to be. As I will show through these essays, to call our daily (or even yearly) cognitive exertions ‘intellectual’ is to keep the bar so low as to make the word (laughably) meaningless.

What I call long-distance thinking might once have been called wisdom*, the capacity of using one’s cumulative knowledge and experience to do good (for oneself and others). Wisdom is also called ‘sagacity’ (showing great understanding), or ‘sapience’ from Latin ‘Salled it pientia’ (wisdom), and Greek ‘Sophia’ (transcendent wisdom, or ultimate truth/reality). The Latin verb ‘sapere’ (perceive, discern, and know) inspired Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), the Swedish biologist and father of modern taxonomy to choose the term Homo sapiens for the human species.

Ever since we humans have presumed that mere membership in the species makes us wise!

Wise people- long-distance thinkers- are exceptional. Which is a shame, because they are also utterly vital for our survival. They are exceptional because they have (a) the knowledge needed to understand our complex world; (b) the skills to avoid making logical fallacies and errors in reasoning; (c) the imagination to project beyond immediate concerns; (d) the disposition to manage inevitable social ostracization; and (e) the stamina to stay the course.

*To be clear, the fact that I teach about wisdom (and critical thinking)- doesn’t make me a wise person. If anything, in my rather longish life, I have been guilty of far too many acts of foolishness and have, often, fallen short of my own standards. My insights, such as they are, come from the hard lessons that I have learned. Among other things, I have had my assumptions (about democracy and diversity), aspirations (of being an autonomous and free man), and values (about truth, beauty and the good life) mercilessly knocked out of me.

So, I am not wise. But having harvested a rich crop of lemons, I do know something about making lemonade. So, allow me to give you my lemonade franchising idea: Creating a thinking citizenry (worthy of a liberal, pluralistic democracy).

It is a shame that Presidents in their annual State of the Nation address don’t talk about the quality of our thinking. To state the obvious, the cognitive state of the nation is abysmal. If our national electric grid were this bad, North America would be in darkness (and sweltering). If our military were as inept, it would be open season on our borders. You get the idea.

Commercial advertising, political propaganda and an anarchic social media have demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt what many of us had suspected- that most humans (including our leaders and best friends) are incapable of thinking for ourselves. Hence, we are sitting ducks for shiny ideas, tales of heroism and stories of oppression that get us where we are most vulnerable- our emotions. Political parties, lobbyists, and corporations spend billions every year to misdirect and manipulate us. These gigantic sums would not be approved- unless they were able to count on our collective stupidity. In effect, others tell us what to think, believe and how to behave.

They play us like a violin, they beat on us as though we were a set of drums- they make the music that we dance frenetically to.

The quality of our thinking wouldn’t be out of place in feudal and despotic societies where we would be proud serfs and well-behaved subjects. We would have made Stalin, Mao and the Ayatollah proud.

Alas, if you are reading this you are unlikely to be living in Leningrad, Shanghai or Tehran, but in our supremely imperfect democracies, where (as citizens) you are required to make complex choices and take decisions for the common good- not just your own group, clan, or tribe.

Living in open and free societies is substantively different from trying to survive under the benign despotism of monarchs, or the jackboots of dictators: The pressure to conform (obey or submit) doesn’t come from rulers, bosses, elders or clergy. The pressure comes from our peers, friends and colleagues who hold enormous power over us- to include, exclude, validate, love, or hate.

Without their approval and acceptance, we are toast.

This presents an unusual dilemma to citizens of democracies. On the one hand we can criticize Presidents, Prime Ministers, bishops and billionaires with relative impunity. We are protected from their retribution by the ‘negative rights’ that constrain the powerful from interfering with our freedoms and lives. However, there are no such laws and norms restricting our peers and friends from harming us. They can condemn, silence, and ostracize us. We can speak truth to power, but not to our peers- who are pretty much a law unto themselves. When they turn on us, we are helpless.

So, how do we protect our independent thinkers from their peers? That is the big question, the one that can help us solve the problem of sustaining democracy. It is obvious that we desperately need to inculcate higher order thinking skills in our democratic citizenry- if we are not to keep churning out emotionally reactive subjects or passive serfs who will accelerate our descend into anarchy and despotism.

What, Me Change?

The problem is that, not unlike addicts and recidivists, most people resist changing past behaviors and current thinking patterns. Many will even be offended at the suggestion- “Thank you, but as a good person (Christian/ Feminist/ Sociologist/ Socialist), I don’t need any help. But my neighbor is a jerk, go change his thinking”. We don’t want our thinking improved- it would mess up our weekends.

So, then, this is my quixotic mission- to teach people how to use their minds. Here’s how I see it:

1. If we knew how to think critically, we would be more likely to think hard before we make choices that weaken our vulnerable families, communities, universities, democracies.

2. If we knew how to think for ourselves and were impervious to peers, propogandists or algorithms, we might realize the urgency of protecting our institutions- even as we strive to improve them.

3. If we knew how to think beyond our own narrow lives and enthusiasms, we would be able to distinguish between the things that matter and those that don’t- before we destroy everything.

4. If we knew how to appreciate what brought us here, we would be grateful to those who came before us and sacrificed so much- so that we could enjoy our freedoms and rights.

5. Even if we fail to teach a critical mass of people- those of us who tried would have banished the squatters and regained possession of our own minds.

It is quite simple, really- learning how to think allows us to operate our own minds. Once we do this, we realize how silly it is to mimic other people’s minds or adopt the products of their mediocre thinking (fashionable opinions, ideologies, and values). Once we have mastered our Lamborghini (with the naturally aspirated V12 engine and carbon-fiber structure, that can achieve top speeds of 355 km/h and accelerate 0-100 km/h in 2.8 s) why on earth would we willingly allow ourselves to be driven around in someone else’s jalopy. Or clown car?

In upcoming essays, I will share what I believe are the inherent challenges of creating a thinking person, leave alone a thinking citizenry. I will also offer you suggestions for creating and maintaining your exquisite mind. Join me in co-creating a community of genuinely independent, irreverent and compassionate thinkers.

Experience the trails, trials, and triumphs of Long-Distance Thinking.