If there is anything that can be learned from this recent election cycle, it is that Americans must learn to think and use logical deduction when going about from day to day. The two candidates (well, there is Johnson and Jill Stein, but who really is going to vote for them?) that captivated the party lines are not the most moral of people that we have running for the presidency. However, just like everything else, the media and campaign spinmasters begin their crusade to crucify one candidate in favor of the other, and vice versa. With such turbulent press "reporting" that we have seen in this election, I believe it is time to re-evaluate how we go about thinking in our day to day lives.
Reason spans as far back as the beginning of time. Even in the Garden of Eden, the snake used reason to convince Eve to eat the apple, thus damning humanity to a life of sinful slavery. However, we must remember that reason itself is flawed, since we, as humans are very flawed. I suppose to prove this we should take stock in the number of mistakes we have made, both big and small, only to realize that they are a much more sizeable number than we could have hoped for. Yes, we all make mistakes.
However, just because reason is flawed, it does not mean that we should not use reason at all. The beauty of humanity is its ability to correct itself when the mind is set on doing so. No, we will never stop making mistakes, and we certainly will not stop doing things that hurt others. However, it is totally possible to make improvements and tweaks to who we are right now. So, as human beings, who naturally use reason, might I add, we should focus on thinking more logically and tailor our thinking to match that or logic.
Now, there is a sure difference between logic and reason. Reason is the ability to think, but logic is the ability to think perfectly. True logic will not lead to error, but all the reasoning in the world can lead to serious error. So, a great place to begin thinking correctly is to begin learning logic.
"But wait!" One may cry, "What if I don't have the time to think everything through? Can't I just trust someone else to do it for me?" To someone who asks that question, I would like to refer them to the times when the "greats" of society, the people that everyone looked up to to provide them with the proper way of doing things or looking at the world, failed miserably to even predict two days ahead. History is rife with examples of this, from Britain drastically underestimating the American public in favor of the American Revolution to news reporters making common mistakes in their reportings today, we see a trend of the greats, the people whose job it is to do the big thinking, making horrible mistakes and analytical pitfalls. It is to this that I say it is time for America to think for itself again.
Although it is a noble goal to keep abreast with what is going on, and it certainly takes time to do so, one must remember to make sure things pass the smell test. People must do a little homework to ensure what they are hearing isn't biased drivel or useless trope that has no bearing on the main issue. Of course, it will take time to learn to do this correctly, but a thinking populace is a better populace, and a better populace makes a better country.
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