Judgement & Critical Thinking

     Judgement is essential to human existence but we are not educated to develop judgement, rather we are programmed to learn facts.  This seems to be a time of disfavor toward 'judgement', especially among young people we hear "you shouldn't judge", "don't judge me", etc.  because judgement has been equated with condemnation but that is limiting it to the negative end of the spectrum; at the positive end we employ it to choose the desirable, and use it to evaluate the various merits and flaws in a conflict situation.  Judgement is uniquely human and fundamental to choice making; education should focus on its development.  When we relinquish our ability to render judgement and rely solely upon laws, rules and procedures it can lead to absurdity in situations that don't fit the norm -- A gathering I attended this week highlighted this point.

     A soft-spoken Senior Citizen who walks with difficulty entered the discussion by apologizing for her state of mind because she was still upset and angry over nearly being arrested the day before; several people who knew her reacted with shock and disbelief, she went on to describe the incident:  She has given up her driver's license so now relays on public transportation.  She attends art classes at a Senior Center within a 10 minute drive from her home.  There is a town supported transportation service for Sr. Citizens/Handicapped for which you must call to reserve seating.  She and a friend planned to use the service to attend the art class, the friend had called in the reservation for 2, but another obligation caused her friend to cancel.  When the person telling of the incident boarded the bus, took a seat, and gave her name as required, she was told her name was not on the roster so she must leave; the driver stated, "only those registered can ride".  She refused to leave her seat, explaining that her friend had made a reservation for both of them but only the friend had canceled.  The bus driver recognized the woman from previous rides but explained she had been reprimanded for giving a ride to someone not registered, so she had to uphold the rule.  There were only two other passengers aboard and they were commenting…there was plenty of room and it was only a few short miles to the  Center…It grew a bit heated at the driver's refusal to allow her to ride.  The teller of the tale did not want to miss her class, she stayed in her seat, the bus went nowhere, a supervisor was called!  When the supervisor appeared she ordered the woman off the bus, telling her to call in as she was supposed to do and take the next bus that would be by within the hour.  Protesting that the suggestion was unreasonable and would cause her to miss her class, the supervisor threatened to call the police and have her arrested.  Still she sat; the supervisor took out her cell, dialed, asking for an officer to come there to resolve an 'incident'.  Our story teller said she then exited the bus because she reasoned that an art class was not worth going to jail for!     --As she told the story she was visibly shaken and the entire group was incensed by the injustice.

     In this complex world we occupy it is increasingly important to know how to assess situations and use reasoned judgement.  The term 'critical thinking' emerged in the mid-late 20th Century as an approach to problem solving based upon 2500 years of development from the Socratic method.  Most educators are aware of it but it is not widely used in our schools.  Wikipedia refers to 'critical thinking' as: "a process that leads to skills that can be learned, mastered and used."  There is a need for education to focus upon developing judgement in our students as it is not possible to write rules and procedures for every situation; we will always encounter the need for 'common sense' (=good judgement) so it seems only reasonable to work at enhancing it.

Potential

In creating a new nation, our forefathers foresaw government at its best--while today we must watch government at its worst:  legislators blind to the long range effects of bad choices made from intransigent positions and personal self-interest . . .
We wait and hope that ultimately their better natures triumph.

I recall a poem I wrote at another time for other reasons:


               Potential

I believe in human potential--
       man can be more than he is
       if armed with the will to become.

I see the inherent dangers--
       power can either create or destroy
       so knowledge of it awakens fear.

I know of quantitative quality--
       that which can be expressed positively
       can likewise be expressed negatively.


       I look to civilization's development
              - the taming of fire
              - the mastery of communication
              - the understanding of order
              - the creation of beauty
              - the invention of systems
              - the development of industry
              - the perfection of technology
       laced with wars, tyranny, slavery, holocaust, bigotry,
             treason, genocide . . .

       This is my heritage, my lineage, my ancestry;
       It all came before me and is mine because I am!

       This awareness engenders painful ambivalence;
       majesty and pride joust with horror and shame.

       All this is because of human potential
       our being has changed the face of the earth.

       Man has traveled to the moon
       and he has created Auschwitz and Dachau.

                       Are we gods or demons?

       The more we refine our being
       the more aware we become of its flaws.

       Ignorance once hid from us our vast potential;
       yet once glimpsed, that image holds the mind in bondage.

       Reality forces us to live with the less that is
       while desperately longing for the more that can be.


Now, together, we are called to create a better world--
       the negatives are painfully real
       but somehow, somewhere, progress happens.

Truth demands we acknowledge our potential's full range
       without abnegating the responsibility;
       --each person's choices helps shape the future.
   

more about Synchronicity

(see previous blog)

By paralleling Colorado's vote to oust legislators supporting gun control with the devastating floods that swept the state immediately following, some might presume I was implying God's vengeance.  Not so! I do not believe in a vengeful God; rather, a God of love awaiting humanity to realize its mandate for recognizing life's interconnectedness.  It is our choices, not God's intervening that sets the stage for world events.

All life shares a tiny blue ball suspended in a vast universe--but only man makes choices.  If we don't learn to make sustainable choices we face extinction--from wars and violence, ecological degradation, economic imbalance, political polarization, denial of moral values . . .

Too often we ignore a problem and collectively make choices on behalf of special interest groups who prevail because they are organized and funded and so are able to manipulate public perception to serve their purpose while diverting attention from the actual problem.  Climate change is one such problem that has largely been ignored while industry actively blocks movement toward solutions.  The unprecedented weather disasters in this and the last decade demonstrate catastrophic results of bad choices.  So too we have a violence problem in our nation, to ignore it and punish those actively seeking reasonable solutions is to invite disaster.  What I see as the meaningful connection between the two unrelated Colorado events is that both illustrate inappropriate choices in response to obvious needs.  Is this a wake up call?

There are those who believe there are no random coincidences, that all happenings are part  of a greater plan . . .

Synchronicity

There are those who believe there are no random coincidences; that all happenings are part of a greater plan -- I find that an interesting idea but take no stand on it.

Ummm -- with no implication of cause and effect I observe this week's news:

1)  Because two state politicians in Colorado had spear-headed new gun control legislation the NRA and gun lovers initiated a referendum to oust the two from office.  The legislation did not take away guns, only required tighter background checks and a restriction on the size of ammunition magazines holding more than 15 rounds--not an unreasonable move to curb the violence infecting our society--yet on Tuesday's vote the two were ousted.

2)  The next day, Wednesday and continuing through Thursday the state has been ravaged by floods.  A freak storm dumped unprecedented rainfall on the state with devastating effects--roads and bridges washed away, homes threatened by mud slides and loosened boulders.

Karl Jung would here use the term synchronicity:  an apparently meaningful coincidence but causally unrelated.

Moral Dilema

This seems an appropriate time to give ‘serious thought’ to moral dilemmas.  A simple definition of dilemma is: a required choice between conflicting alternatives.  A moral dilemma is never a choice between right and wrong (that choice is obvious); it is a forced choice requiring evaluation and judgment.  While moral dilemmas can be either positive or negative, the more apparent moral dilemma is one where there is no desirable outcome, yet the situation demands a choice.  This is the current situation we face regarding Syria’s use of chemical weapons.

            I don’t presume to know the best answer, but I clearly see the dilemma.  The Assad regime is at war with its own people; in its attempt to subdue the rebels it has loosed chemical weapons that have killed thousands of non-combatants, mostly women and children.  In the Geneva Accord of post-WWI, nations came to an agreement to ban chemical weapons for use in conflicts.  The Assad regime ignored than ban and the world has viewed dying children gasping for breathe and rows and rows of bodies wrapped in shrouds.  The question before the world and our nation is: How do we respond to this abomination?  There is no ‘good’ alternative and the issue of military retaliation is on the table.  We as a people are called upon to choose the course of action.  We cannot know the outcome of ANY of the potential choices.  The current choice before us seems to be between military reprisals or to do nothing.  Either seems abhorrent!  It may seem that ‘do nothing’ takes us off the hook—but non-action IS a choice: the choice to squarely face what we know to be morally abhorrent and simply look the other way—ignore it.  Is that not what the German public did as the Nazis rounded up Jews and sent them off to concentration camps that ultimately led to gas chambers? 

            To do nothing is a choice!  Yet I ask, are there choices other than: bomb or ignore?  If our leaders choose not to use military force, let us not lose our moral outrage, but put all effort into finding another way to retaliate against this monstrous immoral regime. 

            I believe the biggest challenge of our era is to learn to make moral choices.

Psalm 6 for the contemporary world

An exercise I enjoy is taking a Bible Psalm and re-writing it to fit that theme into today's world.

In Psalm 6 David seeks deliverance in a younger world;  in mine, an older and different world, the story  changes while the prayer remains.
David is pursued by enemies and fears his sin has ignited God's wrath causing God to turn from him.  His prayer describes the agony he feels at God's absence.


       . . . I too have felt God's absence . . .
I have walked the edge of the void
       and peered into the darkness . . .
Not God's wrath do I find
       but man's thunderous denial!

Life is a precarious balance
       between God's goodness and man's selfishness
When God is taken out of the equation
       man is free to create hell.

My heart has never been without a longing for God,
but the rest of me lives in a world of ever present denial of His being
       not just by words of brilliant men from Fredrick Nietzsche
                                                                 to Karl Marks
                                                                 to Steven Hawking
       but by daily demonstrations:
such as obscenities and pornography protected by law
       while prayer is banned from schools;
as the few luxuriating in opulent wealth while
       orphaned children sift through garbage heaps;
as men of power willingly destroy cities and
       slaughter their citizens to keep that power.
On a daily basis the God of Love is mocked and slandered by our
       entertainment saturated society.

I live in this reality we've created which ever makes the case
                                                                  for a godless universe . . .
and the plausibility of that conclusion seeps through to threaten . . .
                                                                  Awareness asks: IS GOD?
                                   The shouts of 'No' drown the whispers of 'Yes'
                                                                  6 . . . 7 . . . 8? billion people . . .
       In my aloneness I become a grain of sand on an endless desert

           
                     My soul is in anguish,
              How long O Lord, how long?
       When your absence is all that I feel,
              my soul is inconsolable
              my eyes grow weak with sorrow
       when I realize the strength of my enemy!

                                 . . . still I pray
                     Turn, O Lord, and deliver me
              save me because of your unfailing love!

Such Wonder!

Out of the void
       God called forth life.
              It was good!

Through millenniums
       that call expanded and continued.
              Marvelous diversity!

Then came beings with awareness
       who could look back and ahead,
              to know and comprehend.

Life flowed on and on . . .
       Marvelous complexity
              ever expanding thru eons.

                       ___

And one day against all odds of possibility
       I came into being
              . . . and was to become a conduit

Life continued through me:
       My baby, my child.
              Mine, but not wholly mine,
                     rather, life's own.

Such Wonder!

                                                     2/2/08