Rocket Scientist

A respected friend of mine, Ruth Dickson, who wrote this hilarious book, made an observation on my post regarding critical thinking the other day (this is its Gather incarnation, complete with the comments). She was noting that the problem wasn’t that people wanted to have all the answers, but that they didn’t have any questions.

I had to ask myself how sad that was. After all, curiosity is natural, isn’t it? Kids come with it, at least all the kids I’ve ever known. In order for them to carry it through life, you just have to keep from squelching it. They want to learn, they want to know more, they’re up to their eyeballs in questions. So, that begs the question, what kills it for them? What changes so that they stop asking questions and stick fingers in their ears with “lalalala” when something that challenges their outlook on life comes along? Where do we lose them?

I had suggested that the level of critical thinking was dropping but another well-respected critical thinker I know, Nippy Katz, commented that he didn’t think the level had actually dropped but that it actually remains constant. I can’t say whether that’s true, but I can’t say that it’s not. I’ve only lived now (at least that I can remember - I don’t have an issue with the idea of reincarnation) and I’m dependent on what history has recorded for times before. One could make a good argument that any creative/critical thinking would be among the things recorded and, therefore, give a skewed view of the world back then.

What do you think? Is it becoming more scarce? Do you know why, if you think it’s changing? Or, if it’s always been here, what makes it seem like it’s becoming a rarity? I have an idea that perhaps that perception is tied to whether the culture, government, media or policy is being driven by the thinkers or by the parroters. Tell me what you think.

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