Living in the gray area of information

Western culture highly values critical thinking, it is what the K-12 school system is ultimately trying to instill in the future of America. Students are made to parse through scientific theory, historical documents and even works of art in hopes that they can learn how to correctly interpret information.

Sometimes I wonder how much good this is doing us. Don’t get me wrong, cynicism is healthy but it’s really just a form of self-preservation. We scrutinize so we don’t get hoodwinked, but only because of the implication that brings. For example, if one is out in the woods foraging mushrooms they would naturally pay careful attention as to which morsels they choose to eat. Doing anything other than that could result in a serious illness or death, so of course cynicism is required. But when it comes to consuming information where is the looming implication that is stopping us from gobbling up everything we read?

The prospect of being uninformed would be a good answer, but seeing as a large portion of our population opts for ignorance it can’t be that intimidating. Are we really that scared of the idea that the entire world is simultaneously hiding deep, dark truths from us? I don’t buy it. My best guess is that many of us are repulsed, to varying degrees, by the notion that both sides of the aisle could be living in equally valid realities. Repulsed by the fact that you, your anarchist cousin, ‘Back the Blue’ neighbor and overly socialist coworker could quite possibly be safely validated in their opinions.

Not only is this possibility unappealing for lots of us (many would deny this but would instantly welcome a society completely conforming with their beliefs) but the prospect of having to actually have to function in that reality seems like a mountain to climb. Take a look at the past few hundred years of human history, we’ve repurposed common ground into even more space for intellectual combat (as if we needed it). There haven’t been any indications that we’re becoming more inclined to make a communal garden somewhere in that warzone.

This brings me to the gray area I’ve referenced in the title but have yet to explain up until this point. If nowhere exists to truly experience the thoughts, feelings, and overall headspace of unlike-minded people for what they are, bring it to yourself. Critical thinking instructs us to take everything with a grain of salt without exception, I’m encouraging you to sometimes leave your salt shaker in your cupboard.

Become a consumer of your rival’s news sources and check your judgment at the couch. Try your hardest to think like a democrat or republican, whichever you are not. Because, if you can successfully do that then you can also do a much better job at understanding the world that one lives in. Once achieving that we can all become much more effective at tackling problems as a unit rather than two equally loud and obnoxious voices.

If anything, do it as an exercise for yourself to ensure you haven’t fallen too far into your own echo chamber. We become lazy when removed from the wild, like lions taken from their home to a zoo. Cynicism can lead one to this feeling of comfort, and feeling as if they’ve made the correct interpretations can be cause for disdain towards those who you feel cannot do the same. This is a mistake, even if such a belief is correct you then fall into the same pitfall as those who you see yourself as above. What I’m trying to get at is that even if one perfectly practices critical thinking they can still be as useless in problem-solving as someone who does not.

Those on either side of the political battleground aren’t going anywhere, and neither are you, so we may as well learn how to work together to get what we want. The best way to do so is to attempt to understand one another’s motivations, and how we act on them. Such an understanding doesn’t come from skepticism or dismissal, it comes from shared experience.

For a day, or two, or three read FOX or CNN for what they are. Immerse yourself in the flow of information that you deem to be sewage, trust me there is no danger. You will not lose your wit or your sense of self; brainwashing occurs over the course of years, not over the course of a Sean Hannity season.