It All Begins With Thought
In order to function in this world we need to know how to think well. In order to be able to think well takes work. And so, it is this work of learning how to think that is the subject that I will be exploring in my writings.
The Dunning Kruger effect describes a 1999 study by two psychologists that describes how people with low ability in a certain area overestimate their understanding of the topic being considered. Our modern politicians give us a perfect example of this deficit of not being able to think clearly about a problem that needs to be considered.
A perfect example of the opposite of the Dunning Kruger effect is found in the person of Socrates who lived about 2400 years ago in ancient Greece. Socrates excelled in debate and he was so successful in this endeavor that he ended up being put to death because of his wisdom. The reason Socrates was so successful in argumentation is that he never began his exploration of a matter under consideration from a place of knowing. Instead, he began from the place of ignorance and his only goal was to find truth.
This is so different from the hubris filled know-it-all arguers of today who think they know everything and their only goal is to prove that they are right in winning their arguments. We see this so clearly in politics and religion where there never seems to be a desire to find truth. These modern pundits already know everything and their only desire in speaking is to push their understanding of truth on to us ignorant fools who know nothing compared to them.
The problem with these know-it-all pundits is that they actually know very little about anything. And so, these wanna-be leaders can only take us down their paths of darkness into an even greater darkness where they are in control.
My point is all this is that we cannot change the world or the plethora of its ignorant savants. We can only change ourselves. And the way to greater wisdom has many paths. These include reading, meditation, finding intelligent friends, writing, pursuing beauty and communing with the natural world. The path to wisdom also include negations such as giving up ignorant friends, stop watching television and giving up unhealthy eating and drinking habits.
And so, if you are ready to take the ultimate step on the path to wisdom, go out and get yourself a cat. Your cat will teach you many things. For instance, she will teach you that you aren’t in control and that it’s OK to sleep a bit more, a lot more. And while you are at it, you and your cat can start to listen to good music together and bye and bye the world of stupid people will fade away and you and your cat can have a good chuckle as you watch the world pass by while your new little bird friends sing happily as they peck seeds from you new little bird feeder. Welcome to the world of peaceful living.