Living In A World Of Illusions…
And the fine art of critical thinking…
So little is real.
There are days when the only real thing in your life is your reflection in the mirror. Hopefully, the mirror isn’t cracked or broken.
The media, in all forms, seem to exist only for the perpetuation of a narrative. News, what news?
Advertising? Who is their demographic?
Product marketing? Laughable…
Pharmaceuticals? Ever read the fine print? Take them at your own risk…
Foods? Ever read the labels? For many, eat at your own risk…
The fine art of critical thinking is a necessary skill in deciphering what is real and what isn’t. Unfortunately, it seems to be a lost art. Critical thinking requires analysis, questioning, research, homework, and more homework.
If you look close enough, it’s apparent that everything, and I do mean everything, put in front of us today has a marketing scheme attached to it with the presentation agenda driven. News, entertainment, food, pharmaceuticals, and products of all types are all presented in some way so as to influence the consumer’s thinking that they really need all of it.
Who cares about the consumer? Just buy our stuff!
There is no such thing as raw, unfiltered information. It’s too offensive for most people.
What benefit do critical thinkers gain from their time-consuming research? They learn the world around them is not what the media, in all forms, profess it to be.
Critical thinkers know who they are. The skill comes naturally for some, others not so easy, but they can get there eventually.
With the point we are at today, it would be an understatement to say there is substantially more than enough subject matter to formulate a college degree program dedicated to critical thinking. Could it be there is one…somewhere?
With the youth of today so thoroughly attached to and dependent on their mobile devices, a college-level course is likely already too late. Grade school and early high school would be the more appropriate starting point. Either way, the younger generations could benefit from some critical thinking exposure.
The most appropriate term found to define this scale of illusion is “gaslighting”. The definition is appropriate in nearly all, if not all, cases.
Critically think if you aren’t familiar with the term gaslighting. Look it up.
Critical thinking is the most appropriate method to offset this inundation of filtered media, entertainment, pharmaceutical advertising, and product marketing.
Get rid of all the agenda-driven filters, and you pretty much end up with the truth. The truth can be good or bad. It can hurt, and it can feel good.
Absent the truth, the brain becomes dormant, almost numb, from a thinking standpoint.
The youth of today are getting sucked face-first directly into the most prolific gaslighting devices known…their cell phones.
What comes through those devices is numbing the brains of our future generations(Yes, plural).
Hopefully, some event comes along to pull them back before they’re sucked in up to their shoulders or waists. A wake-up call of sorts.
We are lost in a world of illusions.
Seeking the truth through critical thinking may, just may, start to dissolve the illusions inundating our sensory intake 24/7.
It takes more than just reading or listening. Ask questions.