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AGOGE “TOOLS” of WISDOM and UNDERSTANDING
CUTTING THROUGH the ONION.
(the deeper one gets, the more this life stinks)
DE-MYTHOLOGIZING – KILLING “SACRED COWS”
(exposing humanity’s substitutes (vain idols) for God’s “reality” – digging “beneath” and flying “beyond”)
UNTANGLING “KNOTS of CONFUSION”
(the “5 ‘C’s– Clarity, Consistency, Carried to it’s Conclusion?, Consequences?, Connectivity)
“WHAT THEY DID NOT SAY” – DE-CONSTRUCT the DEMOGOGUE
(“UN-masking” the manipulation of the masses)
“BAIT and SWITCH” METER-DETECTOR
(Do we have to get FOOLED … AGAIN?)
“The LORD is the BEGINNING of WISDOM … and UNDERSTANDING” – Proverbs 9
“X-treme” CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
The “thought process” is complicated, but does not unnecessarily so. When are things “simple”? “Complex”?
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Here is the “Xtreme” basic approach towards SOME “RATIONAL” learning, discussion, debate and overall discourse, an attempt to bring some “REASON”, “SENSE” and “SANITY” to a world inhabited by human beings frequently IR-RATIONAL, NON-SENSICAL and IN-SANE”.
In the “tragic” world we live in, “REASON” is LIMITED, “SENSE” is SUBJECTIVE and BIASED and “SANITY” is RELATIVE.
COMPARED to WHAT?
Socrates stated, “The UNexamined life is not worth living”.
Here are some basic “rules” for “examination” as we use INQUIRY to CRITIQUE the word we live in. If we can not apply some “critical thinking” to our critical thinking, then there is no hope.
The SEVEN (7) C’s
1) CLEAR
The world we live in and its human inhabitants are frequently CONFUSED. Hence, the more “CLARITY”, the better. (thanks, Denis Prager!) Life if BOTH simple and complex. Knowing which one applies is not easy. Unfortunately, we often complicate the simple and oversimplify the complex. Knowing WHEN “simple” and “complex” applies requires judgement and wisdom.
2) CONSISTENT
If we apply something to ONE thing, we need/should apply it to EVERY thing,
3) CARRIED to its CONCLUSION
Where is this eventually LEADING us or GOING? CAUSE and EFFECT is a basic thinking skill that many lack.
4) CONSEQUENCES (COSTS)
What “EFFECTS” or end RESULTS occur? UN-INTENDED CONSEQUENCES
5)COMPARED to WHAT?
6)CONFIRMATION (EVIDENCE)What supports your thinking? In a world of “FEELINGS”, FACTS are often lacking.
7) “CONNECTIVITY” (CONTEXT)
“Learning” is often stunted and hindered by “DISCONNECTS”. Effective education “CONNECTS” the DOTS, elevates simple “comprehension” to more complex “understanding”,
“Xtreme” BENEATH and BEYOND: Joining puzzle PIECES, eventually bringing the “BIG PICTURE”into view INTELLIGENCE, “EDUCATION”, WISDOM?
The “X-treme” Approach: BENEATH and BEYOND
Most education that is provided is HALF baked – it does NOT dig DEEP enough and it does NOT go FAR enough in its implications and applications of our knowledge.
Hence this ‘beneath” and “beyond” approach – seeking to go DEEPER and FARTHER:
“BENEATH”:
Like cutting into an onion, this “extreme” approach seeks to penetrate BENEATH the SURFACE of something, in order to summarize and analyze (break down) the “parts” of something and how it really “works”.
Socratic inquiry leads us to generalize what forces are at work (thesis), what evidence do we have to support our analysisand how do we apply(synthesis)our knowledge in a “wise” manner into the real world.
Most history tells a STORY that STARTS in the MIDDLE, ignoring the BEGINNING and the END …
Most of our “progessive”education is SHALLOW and SUPERFICIAL.It does not enlighten us sufficiently about the “parts” and how the whole works.
By analogy, we see a car running and are told hamsters running on wheels on the inside are powering the vehicle.
This car analogy might sound logical, plausible and is theoretically possible, but is not supported by in-depth investigation and analysis.
We know by experience that the hamster thesis is wrong, not only about cars (beneath), but that hamster power is not capable of providing the energy demands of the world. (beyond) This ridiculous analogy points out not only how much of what we ‘know” is wrong, based on questionable assumptions, but how much of our seeming “intelligence” needs to be UN-LEARNED.
“BEYOND”:
After we analyze the principles of how something works, then how do we use and apply that knowledge practically to determine where things will lead to, into the great “beyond”, the “big picture”? Take the example of teaching World History. (I know from experience) Teaching the ‘history” part can be pointless unless one has some understanding of “the world”.
“BEYOND” means “CONTEXT”in the form of understanding “WORLD VIEWS”
BENEATH our views we have philosophical ASSUMPTIONS which influence our “big picture” view of “truth” and “reality”.
Our worldviews originate from our individual interpretations of “nature” and “human nature”. Whether we realize it, we all have a worldview, a pair of eye–glasses that filter our perception of the world “beyond”.
Much of what we learn in our educational system is both myopic (short-sighted) and small, providing a very INCOMPLETE understanding of something.
Human knowledge (epistemology) is by nature limited and incomplete. If someone is hanging on the trunk of an elephant, they have little understanding of the other parts of the elephant.
The “beneath” takes us into the elephant trunk. The ‘beyond” seeks to study the entire elephant. The “extreme” approach uses both microscope and telescope.
Today’s education stresses indoctrination and dismisses information. Ignorance can be dangerous. But a LITTLE (partial) knowledge can be even more dangerous.
The “X-TREME” approach seeks to go “BEYOND” to counter ERRORS of OMMISSION (what is NOT SAID) and teach what is NOT TAUGHT.
CONCLUSIONS: The X-TREME NARRATIVE of “WORLD-VIEWS” – “UTOPIANS” vs “The TRAGIC”
We live in a strange world where “utopians”have shallow, superficial WORLDVIEWS which ignore the “tragic” realities of life.
Dystopia inevitably resultsfrom dubious principles and that are impossible to practice as imagined in “tragic” reality. [Utopia=nowhere]
Our “totalitarian” educational establishment intentionally seeks to “dumb down” and “level” education– lower the exceptional highs (beyond), and raise the lows (beneath) into homogenized conformity and totalitarian “one”-ness, a state dictated and controlled re-distribution of education.
Denying potential “haves”, deceiving the “have nots”.
“Activity” (fascist “action”) is mistaken for rigorous/in-depth knowledge,let alone “wisdom”. Teacher “facilitators” lead “expert” students to collectively “construct” their own knowledge.
The reality is ignorant students start from almost nothing and nowhere and never travel very far, being stuck in first gear, forced to “re-construct/invent” reality.Students collectively “discover” that 2+2=4, learning not much really well. Progressive education produces nihilism – imaginary nothingness and narcissism – self-centered wishful thinking and delusional “bubbles” divorced from the “tragic” realities of life.
Utopian worldviews regarding “nature” and “human nature” are inherently flawed and often foolish. They are SOPH-MORON-ic – seemingly, deceptively smart but shallow “wisdom” ( Greek=soph) that hides often stupid, foolish (moron-ic) knowledge and behavior. Seemingly smart on the exterior outside (beyond), truly stupid on the inside. (beneath)
Progressive, utopian education facilitates foolishness, stifles knowledge and rigor, dismisses traditional “teaching”, denies past experience and ignores, prevents and hates traditional “wisdom”. It is a rejection of reality. This dystopian and deceptive education is the worst of both worlds, lacking in-depth (beneath) knowledge and denying the “BEYOND” – outcomes, results and “realities” of life, the UN-INTENDED CONSEQUENCES of ideas and actions. Our Education has become perverted into totalitarian, closed, “politically-correct” indoctrination, not free-thinking, open inquiry.
The road to hell (dystopia) is paved with GOOD INTENTIONS – which usually “morph” into “WISHFUL THINKING”, then “DELUSION” (believing a lie). We’ve allowed ourselves to be fooled [again] by promises of “UTOPIA” – which literally in Latin means NOWHERE. Should we be surprised? – “bait and switch” is the oldest “trick” in the “book of life”.
YET utopian ideals are part of our human nature and existence. Life is “extreme”.
This “extreme” approach is a journey into “WORLDVIEWS” and “reality”, recognizing, acknowledging and trying to reconcile IDEALISM – how things SHOULD BE (beneath), with the REALISM of how things ARE, (beyond) on levels the ‘dumb and blind” educational establishment fails to do.
Can we employ “COMMON SENSE” to find the TRUTH in between the “extremes”?
History Xtreme is arejection and repudiation of the half-baked, soph-moronic, “progressive” educational establishment leading us to DYSTOPIA.
The “FREE” and “TRAGIC” fight for individual “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” against the “FASCIST” and “DYSTOPIAN” elites seeking to lead us into TOTALITARIAN TYRANNY.
– “Slavic Socrates”
