How We Think

If it weren’t for all the senseless tragedy involved, the gun death epidemic in the U.S. would be a fascinating study of how we’ve simply lost out ability to think, or, more precisely, how our beliefs about our thought processes are totally erroneous.

We like to think that our thoughts are guided by unbiased logic and reason, yet that’s clearly not the case.  In particular, we believe what we want to believe and justify our convictions with whatever horsecrap evidence happens to be handy at the time.  If we’re unlucky enough to have one piece of horsecrap discredited, we immediately reach for another to replace it.

Though the meme at the left is a good example, there are others that make the case just as well.

A certain religious sect hates psychiatry.  So what’s their heartfelt conclusion on gun violence?  The prevalence of psychiatric drugs in our culture.  Does it occur to them that Australia consumes roughly the same amount of antidepressants per capita as the U.S., but hasn’t had a single mass shooting since they banned guns 22 years ago?  Of course not.  What’s their reaction when I point this out on Facebook?  Can’t you guess?  They unfriend me by the bushel.  Why put yourself through the agony of actually thinking for yourself when it’s so much easier to believe what you’re told by the leaders of your sect?

I encourage readers to check out the work of psychologist Daniel Kahneman, best known for his findings that challenge the assumption of human rationality in modern economic theory, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics.  Kahneman’s breakthroughs were the subject of my interview with Dr. Jason Scorse, Chairman of the International Environmental Policy Program at The Monterey Institute of International Studies, that can be found in my second book, “Is Renewable Really Doable?”

Here’s a short video for those who may want a surface-level familiarity with Kahneman, one of our culture’s true intellectual giants.