So, is critical thinking really that important?
One of the best and simplest definitions of critical thinking I know came from my mother who was a school teacher for 27 years. Her words of true wisdom were repeated to me over and over all my life: “You are not learning unless what goes in your head mixes up with everything else and comes back out for other purposes.”
From what many of us already know, we can infer that critical thinking is thinking for oneself, reasoning, innovating, challenging biases, and a willingness to even question oneself. This is in contrast to what we have been conditioned too often to do: seeing everything as “black and white” (or blue when it comes to socks), being reactionary, and adopting biases along with an unwillingness to question yourself or anyone.
But is it that important? Richard Paul (the critical thinking guy) had this to say in July 2007,
“Critical thinking, if somehow it became generalized in the world, would provide a new and very different world, a world which increasingly is not only in our interest but is necessary to survive.”
This is the key to what is wrong today. It may seem cliché, but people are “sheep-walkers”, “blind” and don’t really think. This is the heart of most people’s problems and the soul of the issues we all face. Many truly don’t understand liberty because they learned facts and not the principles. We don’t have innovation because people stopped innovating in their minds. People get stuck in ruts at their jobs and never advance because they simple just do their job. We don’t have a generation of leaders because we have been conditioned as followers and not taught to think on our own. This impacts your principles, your morals, your personal success, your ideology, your abilities, and your fears. In contrast people who are awake, learn, and think; it opens up athletic abilities, intellectual abilities, and professional abilities. It creates leaders and stimulates movements.
I cannot tell you where this nation or this world is heading. I can say with certainty it will not be the world we grew up in, and we are on the precipice of monumental change. More importantly than what comes out of this change is who. Will there be leaders that rise up with the ability to take the principles and concepts they learn today and apply them to whatever challenges they face tomorrow?
In this and future land of people with veils over their minds, those that think – lead.
The leaders of today and innovators of tomorrow are the ones that understand and possess the state of mind to use and expand their experiences each day to potentially solve the problems of tomorrow.
William Graham – an anthropologist and author of “Folkways” – emphasized this by saying, “If a critical society existed – that is, a society in which critical thinking was a major social value – if such a society were to emerge, it would transform every dimension of life and practice.”
As a nation and as a culture, we have so “dumbed down” thinking and expectations that we are losing critical societies. We are in the land of the blind. People have stopped learning, thinking, and for the most part don’t know what they don’t know and cannot see. If we are to reclaim and restore the principles and values and achieve individual success, we must as individuals begin critically thinking and rise above the norm of the collective. The person or people that open their eyes to thinking will be treasured and will change the world.
Putting it more bluntly; in the land of the dumb, the one that thinks is king.
While this may be a Herculean cause, it may be accomplished through a better understanding of the innovative state of mind of a leader and an individual’s commitment to overcoming personal barriers and thinking for themselves.
If individuals – like you – begin to rise even just slightly above the mediocrity, a new generation of leaders will emerge. These leaders will inspire a movement and a culture.
“…No doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
