Not Thinking and Bad Arguments. The Only Arguments
for the Belief: You Are Where You Are Meant To Be.
Think Of A Woman Being Raped.
Welcome to Good Thinking.

We're born with the capacity to learn how to think.
All too often, people don't develop that capacity.

I've heard it over and over. We are all where we are meant to be.
Everybody is where they are meant to be. Or it was not meant to be.
And of course, it's all happening for a reason.

The backing: there are usually not even bad arguments.

We are all where we are meant to be - statements like that have irritated me for years. Then one day, trapped on an airplane, watching in-flight "entertainment" - pop star Bon Jovi gyrating while belting out, over and over, "Wherever you are, is where you are "I reached for pen and paper. Words - my weapons of choice.

Bad arguments and not thinking meet good thinking.

Bon Jovi gyrates and grimaces. I think.

I think of one slaughter after another. Hey, Bon Jovi should have been there to tell his good news to the millions of Armenians slaughtered by Turks, the million or so Ugandans murdered by Ugandans under Idi Amin.

Of course the same - wherever you are is where you are meant to be - goes for the Nazi soldiers massing the Jews into gas chambers, the Hutus butchering the Tutsis, the Turks slaughtering the Armenians. Darfur, Biafra, Stalinist Russia. Hey, who can blame the killers? They're just doing what they're meant to be doing.

More ammo against not thinking.

I expect the song to end. It doesn't. On and on and on - with close-ups of Bon Jovi grinning like an imbecile.

Not even one bad argument.

I keep thinking. Hey, what about editing the video, fine-tuning it - throwing a few great shots of towns in Africa with only children and old people. All those in the middle have died of Aids. "Wherever you are, is exactly where you are meant to be."

And how about a bit of footage of women being raped, of kids being run down by drunk drivers, children dying of cancer, a child abducted from her bedroom, raped and murdered.

Those images would certainly have spiced up Bon Jovi's brainless video.

Was Jon Jovi meant to be not thinking, not even having bad arguments?.

A question remains. In Bon Jovi's universe, he was meant to be in that absolutely mind-bogglingly inane video. He had no choice.

The question: Could it possibly be true that he was meant to be making a fool of himself? Was it happening for a reason? - other than the reason that he doesn't seem to be able to think himself out of a paper bag with a clearly marked exit.

A simple logical answer: Why would anyone - divine or diabolical, human or nonhuman - set up the universe to trap Bon Jovi into being in that video? Wouldn't they have better things to do? Plus, why would anyone be mean enough to trap me into watching imbecilic Bon Jovi.

All the evidence points to the most likely conclusion: thhe only one who got Bon Jovi into that awful video was himself - not thinking, not thinking, not thinking at all. Not even giving any bad arguments - perhaps because if he ever stopped to think, he would know what an idiot he was being.

Dangers of not thinking and bad arguments - you're an easy target.

It doesn't take much to figure out that I don't agree with Bon Jovi - not just because I disagree, but on the basis of readily available evidence.

But that's not what's central.

Critical thinking, logical thinking, lateral thinking essential.

Point one. It seems that Bon Jovi is incapable of even the most elementary thinking. If you open your mind - instead of sealing it off - you would get images like mine, brewing up in response to a vision of reality that makes no sense.

Point two. One can go on. If you are where you are meant to be, it makes no sense to try to change anything. You are meant to have no education, to die from a lack of adequate drinking water, to never get a chance in life.

Point three. In his version of reality, you have a universe with no choice - you are meant to be here or there, pushed or pulled around by cosmic forces. Why bother trying to make choices? Everything is meant to be.

Point four. If things go wrong, don't try to figure out what happened. Is there something you could have done? Is there some resource that, had it been there, would have helped? Nope. It was all just meant to be.

Not thinking and bad arguments everywhere!.

Point five - and this is the big one. Bon Jovi is not alone. His song did not introduce me to his way of thinking.

One might ask, what person in their right mind would say anything like he did?

The answer: millions of people do not seem to be in their right mind. Bon Jovi's un-thinking is widespread. Millions of people of at least average intelligence utter the same thoughts - and hold onto them adamantly.

There are even New Age people who go further. They hold that you choose your parents, so that if you are battered, raped, starved, etc. in childhood, you chose that before birth (to learn some lesson or other.

Bad bad thinking, bad bad arguments!.

Arggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That brings me to my central question: what makes people so resistant to taking in reality. Many of these are caring concerned people, educated people (but then high-ups among the Nazis were also educated, some with Ph.D.'s). These people don't think it's okay to go around massacring millions, don't think suffering is unimportant.

But still they believe, ....

Wherever you are
is where you are meant to be.

And I gnash my teeth.

Tooth gnashing from bad arguments and not thinking: not helpful!.

I know I haven't been using a nice or polite tone. I know that the way I've been writing is not the best way to reach people.

But sometimes one gets fed up. I think of all the people who've fought for equal rights - women, people from different races and ethnic groups, gays and lesbians. At some point one gets fed up being reasonable, using a nice and reasonable tone.

I don't want to resort to physical violence.

But I stop caring about being nicety-nice, sugar and spice.

Actually, the spice word has jumped out at me. I think that at some point the sugar burns away and the pepper remains.

I've often made the points I've just made in a more quiet, neutral tone. But this time, watching Bon Jovi making a fool of himself, I rolled my eyes and (as has also happened at other times) also let not nicety-nice words roll out. No swear words. Just words that came from a bit of very elementary good thinking stated in a heated tone.

Time for more good thinking about not thinking and bad arguments.

That brings me to a fork in the road, each leading to a different topic. The first fork leads to other inane opinions - such as the inane opinion that all opinions are equal. The other fork leads to quite a different question: are there effective ways of breaking the hold of stupid opinions? And the third fork leads to an even bigger question: what is going on the the West - which prides itself in being "advanced" - that such irrational thinking, such crazy ideas, are rampant.

Take your pick:

The Mother of All Stupid Opinions:
The Opinion That All Opinions Are Equal

or
Breaking the Spell of Stupid Opinions


signed,
Elsa
June 30, 2006/August 20, 2006
copyright © Elsa Schieder 2006, 2009 - all rights reserved

Click here for MORE bad arguments and not thinking -
The Opinion That All Opinions Are Equal.

WHY such bad thinking, such bad arguments? Click here.

Click here for The Rage of the Righteous,
another rigid stance not backed by evidence,
but ardently held as utter truth .