SENSE, FROM NONSENSE

The goal of clear thinking is to be able to separate sense from nonsense, and so use what is sensible to make decisions, form a personal and world view, and navigate life.

This is made all the more difficult in modern times because of the great deal of nonsense that is about. A lot of which is spouted by seemingly intelligent and knowledgeable persons, some holding high office in the public and private sectors.

How much of this is deliberate and how much inadvertent is hard to know, but in the end it does not matter for our purposes. We need to be able to identify what makes sense and use this determination in our decision making.

Much of what you hear, read, and watch is designed to get from you a particular response so that you bend to the will of the originators. Just being aware of this is only the beginning. Only by constant practice and the development of habit will you be able to master yourself in the face of this onslaught.

Neuroscience is the study of how the human brain works. Much progress has been made in this field over the past few decades. This new knowledge has mostly been employed in maneuvering people in the direction that various elites think appropriate. This has been very effective, especially since the arrival of Social Media. The problem is, what is good for the elites is not necessarily good for everyone else.

Knowledge has exploded over the last few centuries aided by the invention of the Scientific Method. With it has come increased specialisation as experts have come into being. These are essentially people who know more and more about less and less. Generally, they do not tolerate questioning from persons outside their own field and frequently even within their fields.

Faced with the abundance of knowledge, the fragmentation of knowledge, and the growth of the expert, what is an ordinary person to do? Well this requires an art: The Art of Clear Thinking. Rudolf Flesch prefaces his book of this name, published in 1951, with the statement: “It would be impudent to tell intelligent, grown people how to think. All I have tried to do here is to assemble certain known facts about the human mind and put them in plain English.”

Plain English; this is your first clue to spotting nonsense. The days when any language was plain are long gone. It has been replaced by what Ralston Saul describes as the three kinds of speech. Rhetoric, propaganda and dialect.

Rhetoric is the easiest to spot. It is fluffy and flowery and full of the popular phrases of the day. It is most frequently used by the Righteous when praising the great causes of the day, sure of the correctness of their position on the topic in their group and within the universe. It is characterised by very seldom saying anything of note. If you pause to reflect, you will almost certainly not understand anything of what you have heard. Nevertheless, there will be a good feeling starting in the pit of your stomach and making its way into your heart. Rhetoric was not always like this; in the past it was a tool to enlighten and inspire, but not anymore. For an excellent analysis of our current situation, read Merryn Walters here.

Propaganda is more difficult, because it is usually designed to sound plausible given what you already know. Commonly known nowadays as “spin,” it has been around since the Ancient Greeks. Drawing on a few truths, it then presents them along with additional “facts” in such a way as to support a conclusion useful to the creators of the message. In this age of Social Media it is even more difficult to spot as the retweets and AI offerings hide the spin-doctors from normal sight.

Dialect is spoken by the members of a particular elite with the intention of emphasising their separateness and promoting the mystery and marvel of the grouping. So doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, and also politicians use many words which occur normally in language, but in combinations which are incomprehensible to the ordinary person. Then, actual new words are invented to further shroud the specialisation.

Here are some thoughts on how you might sift through the mess of modern communication to arrive at some clear thoughts which you may then state in plain English.

• You are not as dumb as the communications you are receiving may make you feel. The great power of clear thinking is that it does not require a particularly high IQ or level of education to be able to do. Take it from me, I have literally dined with Kings and Presidents, talked with scientists and politicians, and sailed with billionaires. Position, wealth, or expertise in one, two, or many fields is no guarantee of clear thinking. In fact, the more outwardly successful you are, the more difficult it seems to me to be able to think clearly. I have also met people who have obvious mental impairments who have demonstrated an ability to think clearly and communicate their ideas adequately. So, do not be intimidated by the Rhetoric, Propaganda and Dialect.

• Take the time to listen. This may mean writing out what you hear and studying it. Do not think that this is above you. If you cannot restate what you have heard to make some sense, then it is most likely nonsense. Try to figure out what part of the modern communication modes this message fits: Rhetoric, Propaganda, or Dialect. This is not always easy (as they are often mixed), but sometimes useful in trying to understand.

• Rhetoric more often, Dialect sometimes. Propaganda almost never can be reduced to sense, though you will most likely be opposed to the sense you have worked so hard to understand. Sense does not mean that it is right for you, but that you have a situation you can understand. This allows you to make a decision on it.

• If you simply cannot get your head around something, then you have to consider it nonsense. This is the time to identify and red flag the source of this communication as more nonsense is likely to follow.

• Everyone (I do not exclude myself) has believed and repeated nonsense at some time. No one is immune. Give the benefit of the doubt for first offenders, especially if they have a track record with you of speaking sense. Once is a mistake, twice coincidence, three times enemy action.

• Sense from nonsense is not necessarily right from wrong. There may be truth obscured by rhetoric, sweetened by propaganda and protected in dialect. The proponents of this truth may have concluded that in the modern world, in competition with the snake oil salesmen, they need to adopt similar methods to compete. This is true, because there is no systematic process I know of anywhere in the world which gives people, from an early age, the understanding and tools to master their beings and use all their faculties in the proper way to clearly see what is before them. In plain english, people have to learn (better if they were taught) to use their experience, knowledge, intellect, emotions, and imagination in a structured and controlled way in order to think. Athletes have to learn this, and follow on by training their reactions to control unfolding situations. Professions where the mind and body have to work as intended (e.g. pilots, heavy crane operators on a port) must learn these skills. Most professions of the modern era, which emphasise the brain over the body create a rift which makes clear thinking difficult to do.

• Following on clear thinking is Plain Speak, which in turn encourages clear thinking. Plain Speak follows upon a long known principle practised by the ancients, and more recently stated by Sir Issac Newton: “What can be done by fewer is done in vain with more.” Or as I learned in the military, “Keep it simple, stupid (KISS).” Applied to Plain Speak, keep your statements as short (in both word size and count) as you can while still getting your point across.

• Seeming complexity should be able to be broken down into portions which can be more easily understood, then built back up into something more complex but still comprehensible. Clear thinking is not about simplifying things to the point of stupidity; it is about keeping things no more complex than they need be.

An example of Clear Thinking.

This example is personal and provided here not to promote a point of view, but to demonstrate how a conclusion was arrived at and to encourage you to practice and develop the habit of clear thinking. One of the beauties of clear thinking is that two persons can use the practice completely correctly and come to very different conclusions. No two people have the same experiences, abilities, or perceptions; we each interact with the world in a different way and this necessarily influences what is “clear” to us. If you are able to listen to someone, understand how they arrived at what they see, and see where it may have deviated from your own process without being wrong, then you would have arrived at a very high level of awareness indeed.

Consider the climate change thing, two ways of thinking are dominant. Firstly,

Rhetoric: The Earth's climate is changing, mostly heating up. It is the worst it has been in 800,000 years, and Man’s actions are to blame.

Propaganda: We need to act now, to slow, stop, and reverse the effects of climate change. By 2030 it will be too late. The old emitting technologies need to be replaced with new, green tech, to save the planet.

Dialect;

1.Carbon dioxide (CO2)

2. Greenhouse Gas

3. Emissions

4. Weather vs Climate

5. Global warming vs climate change

6. Fossil Fuels

7. Sea-Level Rise

8. Global average temperature

9. Renewable energy

10. COP and UNFCCC

11. INDC

12. IPCC

13. PPM

14. Pre-Industrial Levels of Carbon Dioxide

15. Methane

16. Mitigation

Secondly,

Rhetoric: It will get cooler, the climate is always changing.

Propaganda: Climate cooled down before it started heating up, weather and climate predictions are inaccurate, this is the coldest winter in years! Where is the warming?

Dialect:

NIPCC

In my own view, the climate is changing. Global warming is a factor, and the activity of man has contributed to global warming. The chances of stopping, reversing, or even slowing climate change are so low as to not be credible. Governments, whether unilaterally or multi-laterally, should be taking measures to live through the changes which are already here. It is a good idea to control the activities we can that contribute to global warming. We should target the big things: cement, steel, agriculture (especially cows), and spend money there. Targeting cars and electricity is sexy and will create trillions of dollars of new cash flows over the next few decades, but its impact on global warming will not be significant.

I recently came across Czech-Canadian Scientist Vaclav Smil, whom Bill Gates credits with teaching him much about the climate. Unlike Gates, he is certain that the solutions to climate change being pursued are not going to work, and that we are in for a rough ride which will completely alter the way our civilisation looks. You can see an interview with him here. I quote from it.

I was brought up in Czechoslovakia during the era of the Soviet bloc. Having spent 26 years of my life in the evil empire, I do not tolerate nonsense. I grew up surrounded by commie propaganda – the bright tomorrow, the great future of mankind – so I’m as critical as they come. It’s not my opinion. These are the facts. I don’t write opinion pieces. I write things that are totally underlined by facts.

For most of us the facts will be hard to come by; clear thinking will be required to understand and act.