What Do You Think?

Absent readily available informal venues for considerate discussion of public issues—what we shall call learning houses—unexamined prejudice, often unrecognized as such, would seem to be on a perpetual rampage. Unimpaired by thought, this fierce adherence to habitual opinions actually forms the basis of what the uninformed believe to be their answer to the question ‘What do you think?’ on any given topic.

Thinking, to many, is not a matter of research, study, or reflection, but rather a matter of rote—a mechanical repetition of media propaganda itself designed to undermine understanding. Given the dearth of opportunities to participate in communicating constructively with their fellow citizens face-to-face, the alternative we present for exploratory correspondence via the process of weblogging, then, becomes all the more vital to humanizing our society.

If the beings we encounter in our struggle for sanity are programmed to learn through repetition, then we mustn’t tire of repeating ourselves, albeit it in new, more creative ways. No need to make it boring.

~ by tbarj on April 13, 2007.