Op-tion-al il-lu-sions

[coberst]

Op-tion-al il-lu-sions

Accept or reject are not the only options one has. The most important and generally overlooked, especially by the young, is the option to ‘hold’.

It appears to me that many young people consider that ‘to be negative is to be cool’. This leads them into responding that ‘X’ is false when responding to an OP that states that ‘X’ is true.

When a person takes a public position affirming or denying the truth of ‘Y’ they are often locking themselves into a difficult position. If their original position was based on opinion rather than judgment their ego will not easily allow them to change position once they have studied and analyzed ‘Y’.

The moral of this story is that holding a default position of ‘reject or accept’, when we are ignorant, is not smart because our ego will fight any attempt to modify the opinion with a later judgment. Silence, or questions directed at comprehending the matter under consideration, is the smart decision for everyone’s default position.

Our options are reject, accept, and hold. I think that ‘hold’ is the most important and should be the most often used because everyone is ignorant of almost everything.

Do you agree that ‘hold’ should be the option of choice in almost all occasions?

[Confused2]

Perhaps a topic starter.

'You only learn by making mistakes'

As someone who has been given the gift of a reasonable education I am unable to comment on this. I merely draw attention to the 'why?' that coberst might be exposing.

-C2.

[soundhertz]

Compulsive actions, lack of self-control, impulsive thinking, etc. are the result I believe of untethered emotions. And these can exacerbate in stressful times like now, resulting in important issues like youth (12 to >21) unrest and negativity, as emphasized in their music. Music/poetry has always been an indicator of the day; these kids have a lot to be uncomfortable about. So when a kid goes to see the Black Haloes, or Slipknot or NWA or the Geto Boys or Disturbed or a hundred more, they can do and WANT to get hurt...and I have watched this sadly in my job.

Suggesting to them to hold their opinions would be very difficult when the impetus to make them is so emotionally driven. Alas, a good suggestion will be the last thing many of these kids will listen to. Many of them don't believe in a 'good'. And that's an opinion that won't change easily. Media is a great reinforcer of 'good is hard to come by' (unless one equates 'good' with fashion ipods hair style Harleys mallratting etc.) We on these threads may have lived long enough and know well enough not to think like this, but to those younger who are disillusioned and have reason to not trust their elders at large based on how badly they get along globally, who do we have to be to tell them, and why would they listen? Somehow you have to seperate yourself from the madding crowd to gain any sort of trust. Maybe we have some things to learn first.

[coberst]

"Believing in Yourself" as Classroom Culture

When everyone is right and no one is wrong, what happens to the authority of expertise?

By Susan Ostrov Weisser

http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21



Susan Weisser, college student of the mid-60s became a college professor in the humanities discovered that while pursuing her PhD in English the world changed dramatically. “I believed in my education; now students believe in themselves or say they do…I don't agree with your personal preferences, my undergraduate first-year writing student confidently responded to my suggestions for how to improve her essay.” Susan discovered that today’s student believes in themselves and that belief is unshakable.

Susan considers that her colleagues teaching the natural sciences have an easy task unlike the task of the humanities teacher whose chosen specialty is based to a high degree in subjectivity. The students of the humanities are empowered by ‘interpretive freedom’ based on a presumed subjectivity of their knowledge. These students are likely to accuse their teachers of "He only praises the writing he likes".

There has apparently been a change in the meaning and value of objective knowledge, causing many students to presume that anyone’s opinions are as valid as anyone else’s opinions.

“The thing is, a student once told me after I had tried to introduce a different idea about a text from her own, "a good teacher doesn't give her opinion, she should just help us talk about our opinions so we can learn from each other." Can students learn best from each other? Can the blind lead the blind?

It appears to me that many young people have come to believe that any opinion is as good as any other opinion. Such ideas are dangerous to the individual and especially to the nation. It appears to me that young people need to hear that this is not true. I think young people need to see how adults should think even though they often do not think that way.

[Knot of this world]

'Nations' are also 'opinions' that are dangerous to the individual (and other 'nations'). Might does not equal right.

The solution is to accept each others' 'opinions' as metaphors for One reality. We have to know 'Reality' to do this, and it must be objective. Hence the need for true science (which is forward thinking...) as opposed to 'religious science' which sticks to the past.

In this way, the intuitive power of the individual is satisfied, without being forced by others/elders. Indeed, more 'einsteins' are allowed to flourish, where once (and now) they are actively discouraged (and sometimes violently attacked on 'physics forums'!)

The unconscious alternative is the one we already live in. Pollution, destruction, division, confusion...etc. These are all products of societies 'belief' in its own past, its cherished 'civilisations', its 'progressiveness' into self-destruction, its self-delusions of importance...

The past has not been a path of sanity, so why should we expect our youth to be anything other than disillusioned by it?


Power to new thought and wisdom, I say!

Power to now!


k.