We have come to the edge of a moral abyss. The abyss is telling us — “Stop. Do not go this way. Turn and go another way.”
A simple message. Easy to obey. But there may be other forces in play.
Is there too much whirring in our ears and heads to hear what the abyss is saying? Are we going too fast, have too much momentum in a single direction to stop in time? Are there people pushing us toward the abyss? — they call themselves leaders, but they walk behind. Are there people pulling us toward the abyss? — they call themselves leaders, the already lost.
It will take each individual stopping and asking, “Who are the real enemies of freedom? Who are the real enemies of truth?” It will take each individual stopping and saying, “No, I will not go this way. I will not teach the lie anymore.”
That is what it will take …
Peirce makes it pretty simple. A person able to think triadically does not take sides and is closer to the truth of reality than anyone who has a fixed and unalterable POV.
That’s a puzzler.
On the one hand there is something in pragmatism that gives us an extra degree of freedom — one we can use to reflect on the signs the cosmos is sending.
On the other hand there is nothing in pragmatism that gives us a space station beyond good and evil.
So we do eventually have to pick a direction and go with it.
This is where both Peirce and Nietzsche are in my view posthumous authors leaving us hints that have yet even to be discovered. My own guess abduction is that both of them point to the reality of values within…reality. And that these are consistent with what can be deduced from the portion of the gospels (and other writings) they cited that do create a matrix for inferring values within us that are universal and ontological.
This is the general direction of the work I pursue and have pursued for about thirty years.
I feel I am generally correct. Peirce’s hints came in his various remarks about New Testament texts and related matters – community, continuity, fruits.
Nietzsche I understand to have completed his revaluation of values with the puzzle left us in the Antichrist. Given his own warped sense of values, he could go no further and went mad.
Needless to say I have no academic takers on this line of thought, but I do not do badly with my own inferences when I manage to create lucid sentences expressing what I mean.
I am saying that there are values within us which we either choose or ignore and that choosing them is what moves history.
Unfortunately, for the most part (and this offered only by way of example) those with power and money own the media and apparently have no ethical problem with brainwashing the millions through, for example, the Big Lie. The destruction of the education system makes this increasingly easy to do. Item: In the Texas constitution it is forbidden to teach critical thinking in the public schools. Would that more people were able to think critically, and triadically, and pragmatistically. , , But the greedy captains of global wealth and power would dumb down people as much as they possibly can, near starve them, then get them angry with each other, and make sure that they own guns, etc.
If critical thinking is outlawed …
Wait–I’ve just learned that this is only a recommendation of the Texas GOP platform and has not yet been enacted. The section in question reads:
:“Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
But, yes, the outlawing of critical thinking would appear to be the beginning of the (intellectual) end.
So we should get into the arena. I lay some responsibility on the individual regardless of the entrapment created by the economics of professional life. We need some philosophical whistle blowers.
If critical thinking is outlawed …
Only outlaws will be critical thinkers.