Thinking! What is it Good For!

So a recent scientific study has found that people who like pseudo profound quotes are less intelligent. All those Facebook one liners rubbished if, that is, you consider yourself intelligent. So what are you, dumb or a dreamer? I will term this reduced logic. One is presented with two linked alternatives, so if not one then the other. Maybe we’re being infected with binary thinking. Cameron’s recent speech for air strikes was a case in point. He created a series of binary alternatives each one containing one ‘oh my god I don’t want that!’ and the other ‘whatever it is Cameron wants you to choose.’ It’s probably taught in schools under persuasive writing. “Imagine children you are a government minister and you want your brother-in-law to get a fracking licence, how might you phrase a binary alternative?”  “Miss, miss, how about ‘do you want your children to freeze to death or allow fracking?’ “Very good Hilary B. See what he did children? He posed a binary alternative only one of which is acceptable.” Then of course there’s the exact opposite, a sort of diffusion of logic where everything is possible in the best of all possible worlds. That’s the domain of Facebook one-liners. ‘Everything you seek is seeking you. You have what it takes to get everything you desire.’ There’s a sort of momentary swirl of understanding that feels nice but is gone in the time it took to read it. They’re all probably true but one could read a hundred and be none the wiser. Which neatly leads on to conspiracy theorists where equally, one could read a hundred and be none the wiser. I get the feeling all the great thinkers of the past are turning in their graves at this demise of thinking. And I believe they have a point. Only gross universal non-thinking could lead to unhinging our climate, living unsustainably, fighting perpetually and generally striding out so energetically towards our own demise. So bear a thought for, well anything for god sake!