An article in USA Today struck me as extremely relevant to our journey toward a sustainable and efficient world. I don’t think there is a single professional I know that would disagree with that goal … the only disagreement would be how we pay for it.
Getting anything changed requires the art of negotiation and navigation of complex politics. That requires winning the votes to get things done. And, if any recent voting comes to mind, I am sure you will agree with me that perceptions are seldom based upon solid facts. One of my recent blogs pointed out that even the assumption that the world is round has its critics.
So, this article on how people think of life’s issues seems relevant.
How can it be that a world dominated by the internet and with information as freely available as it is that we can be this misinformed? Could it be that we have a world view and filter what we see and hear to support that point of view?
Critical thinking seems to get a bad rap when it points out how silly things we hold dear really are once you really look at them. Some of my religious progressive friends like to taunt others with the seasonal assumption that a star literally stopped in its progression in the heavens to point to the birth of Jesus.
Sorry if I offended any of you … remember, I couched that as a progressive friend of mine. That would seem safe, right? What if I told you that I believed the story of a star or even a planet if you prefer stopped in its path?
See the pattern? Our son’s favorite play is Wicked. My favorite part of this is the soliloquy by the Wizard in the song Wonderful where he states: “Where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it history. A man’s called a traitor or liberator. A rich man’s a thief or philanthropist. Is one a crusader or ruthless invader? It’s all in which label is able to persist. There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities, so we act as though they don’t exist.”