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The Idea Emporium

Why bother with good thinking?
That's like asking, why bother living fully!

Here ...
7 MOTIVATIONS
for good thinking

****

* it's part of living fully
* a burning sense of urgency
* fun, pleasure, euphoria!
* the sense of ... something's not right
* detecting the emperor's nudity
* breaking taboos
* the sense that ... something vital is missing

****

MOTIVATION 1 - to live as fully as possible -
otherwise, it's like having eyes, but living blindfolded.
It's like never smelling the roses; never tasting the chocolate;
never touching velvet and water; never listening to the rain.
The ability to think is there, along with the senses.
Yes, one can do without - but only if one has to.

MOTIVATION 2 - the sense: this is important!
and sometimes even, a burning sense of urgency!

This keeps me going through the tough parts.
I know my thinking matters.
I know it through and through,
with every fibre of my being.

This motivation tied with a general motivation -
the desire to help, to help make a better world
through the fruits of the thinking.

This motivation also means that it's often incredibly painful, knowing that my ideas are important, and yet not being able to get them heard. It's at least a painful as having creative works stuck in an attic.

If I didn't believe, deeply, profoundly, that my thinking mattered, I wouldn't have bothered with the Idea Emporium. Hundreds of hours - all to reach people.

I come to issues and controversies, controversial questions.
Often I have nothing to contribute. But sometimes I know
that I know things, things that come from a lot of research
and thinking.

The hope of reaching, of helping - that, for me, is the ultimate carrot, the ultimate incentive.

****

That isn't where things start, though.
And it misses out on something else ultra important!

MOTIVATION 3 - fun!
Good thinking is a pleasure, a delight.
Eureka!

Good thinking, logical thinking, analytical thinking, lateral thinking - so many kinds of fun,
* like there are so many delicious flavors of ice cream,
* so many ways to tango.

When one has a breakthrough thought (not that often), it's a high, an adrenalin rush. The words pour out, the thinking pours and pours. I'm on top of the world.

That leaves lots of hard work, doing revisions, doing research, going on and on. But getting to a new view of even a tiny bit of the world - not much beats that. Good thinking at its best.

I remember reading about Crick and Watson, where one of them finally figured out the structure of DNA, the double helix. Today it's old news. Then it took ten years of research, and finally a dream of a snake biting its tail - and EUREKA, it all came together.

Basically, I love thinking - think it should be taught in school along with sports, reading, writing and arithmetic. It's one of the most important parts of ourselves - the ability to think.

A thinking workout - for me it's even better than a body workout. It's creative, exhilarating, invigorating.

When controversial questions - or non controversial questions - grab me, it's a challenge. Climbing Mount Everest - that doesn't do it for me. The challenge of tackling some current controversial social issues. Yes!

It can also do good. One gets closer to reality. One breaks through illusions. One understands something that had been a mystery. But above all, what a thrill.

****

But that's not how things start ...

They start simply and innocently enough.

THE START. I'm ready to look at anything if ..

MOTIVATION 4 - something interests me ...
and something doesn't feel right ...

Think of me as a kind of canary in a coal mine, a cop dog at a crowded airport. Something isn't right, even if others aren't noticing. And when I start thinking - good thinking of course, logical thinking, analytical thinking - it turns out that someone isn't thinking right. I use logic and evidence, especially logic, because when I say something doesn't feel right, I usually mean, it doesn't make logical sense.

For example ...

A tiny current controversy. The Catholic pope makes some remarks, quoting a long ago Christian on the Muslim religion. Many Muslims are outraged, and a few go so far as to murder a Catholic nun. An apology is demanded for the pope's words. None is offered for the nun's murder. Most Westerners are understanding. After all, someone's religion was offended.

A detective might go, "Hmmm, interesting. Very interesting."

I go, "Time for thinking and analysis." I whip out my critical thinking skills, take on the dragons of dreadful crazy thinking and logical fallacy. My This-Is-Stupid detector is working flat out. I decide to do some research. Soon I'm writing.

****

MOTIVATION 5 - detecting
the naked emperor's nudity

I have the sense that I'm especially prone to sniffing out stuff one isn't supposed to notice. It's supposed to stay buried - or anyway, most people go around as if they noticed nothing amiss.

So often these days, there's the heavy perfume of Political Correctness, Good Liberal Tolerance.

Under the perfume, I smell something very fishy. Opinions parading as truth and reeking of poor thinking.

The naked truth: ostriches with their head in the sand may be better at seeing what's going on than people who intone "all opinions are equal" and "one must not be judgmental" as if the statements were incense being wafted in a church.

The statements are naked of thinking, let alone good thinking, logical analysis.

The naked truth: those opinions violate the 2 most basic thinking skills.

****

MOTIVATION 6 - breaking taboos,
not staying within widespread
crazy ideas, irrational thinking ...
which can be scary at times

Sometimes, this is a delight. Sometimes I hesitate. It can feel - it can be - at least somewhat - dangerous to go outside the bounds. That both holds me back and pushes me to speak.

I hate feeling pressured to be silent. For example, at my college, racism is condemned. Great. It's also widely recognized that low level racism exists, so that seemingly non-racist people often, deep down, harbor racist feelings and beliefs. I have no argument with any of that.

But to address counter-prejudice (reverse racism) - no matter how blatant - makes most people uncomfortable.

For me, counter hostility isn't a controversial issue -
but I see that discussing it is controversial for others. Actually, not just controverisial - taboo, contraband, off limits, forbidden. That means that, instead of reasonable discussion about a perhaps controversial hot topic, one may come to an open pit of volcanic rage that had been barely covered by some thin crust.

Still I think, write, talk - like about the intense Muslim outcry against anything that supposedly offends their religion and the widespread Western acquiescence.

****

MOTIVATION 7 - the deep-down sense:
something is missing!

I search for some information,
or for others saying what I'm thinking,
and find nothing or almost nothing.

That's how I came to the biggest research I've done - actually my only massive research project. It's on the impact of feminism on women who become very involved - and more generally on the impact of rights movements on those who are within the oppressed groups and who become very involved. In other words, if you're gay or lesbian and become very involved with gay and lesbian rights, if you're non-white and become very involved with anti-racist movements, etc, what is this likely to do to you?

The first thing I did when the question came to me, is check at the library (this was before the massive internet info explosion). Lots of books on rape, battering, incest, job discrimination, unequal sharing of housework and child care, and so on and so forth. But on this other thing - huge and important as I saw it - nothing.

No research, let alone analysis of research findings. Yet rights movements have been huge for 2 centuries. The lack of study, almost total lack of understanding of the impact of becoming involved, just doesn't make sense - and has been hugely dangerous.

If I'd found an answer, I wouldn't have gone on. But it wasn't there. So I went on and on, with interviews and more interviews, with questions and then more detailed questions. Fascinating.

Truth-driven thinking - fabulous stuff.

Elsa
February 2009

copyright © Elsa Schieder, 2009, 2011, all rights reserved

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Learn 7 Reasons to Love Good Thinking.
Logical thinking, critical thinking skills:
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Good Thinking To The Rescue.
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Critical Thinking Skills - The Best Weapons
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How to think like Einstein, or at least, how to think...

THE IDEA EMPORIUM for GOOD THINKING,
CRITICAL THINKING CREATIVE THINKING, LOGICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING,
TRUTH-DRIVEN THINKING, HOW TO THINK LIKE EINSTEIN *
IDEA * EVALUATION * GOOD THINKING *
CONCLUSION * INSIGHT * CRITICAL THINKING CREATIVE THINKING *
CONTROVERSY * INTELLECTUAL CONFLICTS *
CONFLICTING VERSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS * DIFFICULT AREAS *
THEORY * THEORIZING * FEMINIST THEORIES * TRUTH-DRIVEN THINKING *
PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORIES * ENVORINMENTAL CONCERNS * UNDERSTANDINGS * COMPLEXITIES * UNCERTAINTIES* GUESSES *
HUNCHES * GUT FEELINGS ABOUT THINGS *
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MAYBE NOT QUITE HOW TO THINK LIKE EINSTEIN,
BUT AT LEAST HOW TO THINK,
CRITICAL THINKING CREATIVE THINKING

The Idea Emporium - why and what

One of my lifelong concerns has been trying to make sense of reality. What is happening? Why is this happening? And with that I come to good thinking, which needs critical thinking skills - good thinking which is good exercise for the brains - good thinking, analytical thinking, logical thinking, fresh air for the brain - not brain candy, brain food.

The Idea Emporium.
Critical thought, in depth analysis.
Plus fallacies found out, stupid opinions exposed.
Good ideas, thought provoking analysis.
Challenge, stimulation, fun.

Elsa
thinking pro

copyright © Elsa Schieder 2009, 2011 - all rights reserved
publishing house - FlufferDuff Impressions 2009, 2011

 

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