Well ain't that the truth

I was a teacher. I felt and continue to believe that the best thing any teacher can do is instill a desire to learn in their students. I am fortunate enough to still be in contact with a few of my students and watching them continue to grow and learn is a great pleasure.

And as for myself…I am grateful to have learned to love reading, thinking critically and independently and to know that there are no absolutes. Well except maybe the absolute that there are no absolutes. But I digress. Sometimes in my personal and professional life I have been the smartest person in the room, sometimes the one with the most to learn and sometimes both. Again, I am grateful.

What I am not grateful for but instead appalled by is the lack of critical thinking, rational thought and dialogue and just plain common sense that surrounds us in the media, politics and in higher education. We have become a society that thinks in bullet points, info graphics and talking points rather than one who looks at context, intent, unintended consequences, and objectivity. People want to believe that everyone who thinks differently is not just wrong but bad, stupid, and conspiracy theorist. Therefore they need to be castigated, demonized or restricted. It is ironic that the Antifa movement is the closest thing to a fascist movement we have currently.

What I am currently most disturbed with personally is that I am not sure there is anything we or I can do about it except watch the pendulum swing to the highest point of this idiocy before it comes crashing down and then swings to another extreme. It saddens me to have lost faith in my fellow humans when they get together in groups.