Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, Bestselling Author of Animals Make Us Human and World Renowned Advocate for Autism Rights.

Critical Thinking is Required to Solve Problems Instead of Blind Ideology

One idea in this book that I could relate to was the disturbing fact that when the Mayan civilization faced mounting problems with drought and food shortages, they stopped thinking in a rational manner.  The government became gridlocked and they lost the ability to find real solutions to their problems.  When the problems with food shortages became more and more difficult, fighting increased. They stopped working on finding better ways to grow food and conserve water.

Today our government is gridlocked.  When I was a child in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the government actually got useful and exciting things done.  The Republicans built the interstate highway system and the Democrats went to the moon.  These projects would never make it through the maze of regulations that we have today.  Another important idea in this book is the observation that too often people campaign and protest earnestly and vigorously either for or against something, but they often have no concrete solutions.  In some cases, the people who present real solutions are attacked.

How should we move forward in the future? First of all, children in schools need to be taught critical thinking.  They need to learn how to differentiate accurate information on the internet or on TV from opinions that are not backed up by facts.  In grade school, lessons in critical thinking could be taught by discussing advertisements on TV for popular toys or foods.  The claims in the advertisement could be listed and discussed.  Children also need to be taught that some sources on the internet are more credible than others.  For example, if you are looking for medical information, a scientific journal article is a more reliable source of information than somebody’s blog or posting. However, sometimes a blog contains very valuable information.  How do you differentiate a more reliable blog or posting from a poor one? For example, a blog or posting where a patient tells about a successful cancer treatment is probably more valuable than a blog from a supplement company selling a “magic cure.”

For my own health problems, I obtained valuable information from a single patient report.  However, before I designed my treatment I searched the internet to find other information that showed that other people had benefitted from this treatment.  Often a scientific journal article or research report will pop-up during the search.  When I took a reasoned, logical approach to my medical problems, the best course of action for me was to use a combination of conventional medication and alternative supplements.  I use these to manage the chronic problems that an older person like me has.  The people who allow ideology to control their decisions are often extreme, with views such as, all alternative supplements are quackery and only conventional medication should be used.  I have found that a conservative, careful approach using both forms of medicine worked best for my chronic health problems.

This example of my use of Dr. Google to solve some of my own medical problems can be applied to many issues that face our society.  I have observed that the best solutions for many serious issues could be solved if decision makers could plot a course of action that is somewhere in the middle between ideological extremes on both sides of an issue.  We need to use reason and knowledge to solve problems.