Thoughts Aloud

Looking back over my recent post RE: how governments and progressives are alike (and others), I realize I am guilty of poor word choices. The words “smart” and “stupid” don’t convey exactly what I was trying to get across. What I really meant to refer to is “rationality” versus “irrationality”. That is, to people who conduct their lives based on a rational view of their circumstances versus those who do not.

It occurs to me that there are multiple dimensions to what we might call smart (or stupid), ergo using these words might convey any number of things.

As I see it, the basic dimension is a functional human brain. Almost all humans have this.

The next dimension is IQ (or Intelligence Quotient) which proposes to be a measure of learning ability. An overwhelming majority of humans have sufficient IQ to enable rational thought.

Next would come education or training. Since rational thinking is not something we regularly teach our young, most rational thinkers developed the ability on their own. This is, in my opinion, the very greatest fault in modern America.

Once the mind has mastered the ability to think rationally, it now must have a constant inflow of a variety of information it can use to detect patterns and make assessments. In my opinion, this may well be the second greatest fault in modern America. For too many of us, the path of least resistance for taking in information is to consume the output of the so-called “main-stream media”. Given the obvious bias in the MSM along with the consistency of their message, it is easy for too many Americans to mistakenly think they have been informed. And, when one hears essentially the same message over and over again, the natural assessment is that said message must be correct.

Finally, the person owning this able brain must put forth the effort to apply it appropriately. This includes seeking information sources outside the control of the MSM or the government (not that there is much difference these days) as well as eliminating emotion from their thought processes.

All this suggests, accurately in my opinion, that one can have a high IQ along with a large dose of what passes for education these days and still be totally irrational. Consider Barack Obama, Paul Krugman and Keith Olbermann as three easy examples. Conversely, there are many more “ordinary” people who conduct themselves very rationally.

In conclusion, when reading other of my contributions, wherever I used “stupid”, mentally substitute “irrational” and wherever I used “smart”, mentally substitute “rational”.

I promise to try to be more rational in my future contributions.

Troy L Robinson