This is not a blog for smart people only although smart people are welcome, especially people smarter than I am. Intelligence isn’t absolutely necessary to be reasonable but it can help. Intelligence can get in the way of being reasonable. Milton Friedman and Noam Chomsky are two notable examples. Reason is simply judging the evidence fairly and following it wherever it leads. Sometimes it leads down a blind alley, most times not. Reason is not deciding the direction first and picking the evidence second. Reason is not defending a position taken after years of intellectual and professional investment with a brilliant and formidable intellect, a trap into which the two aforementioned intellectual giants fell. Reason is honest, humbling and infinitely rewarding work that can be taken up by anyone willing to be true to themselves and to the people and the world around them.
The vast majority of people are rational hence they are the majority. It is impossible to get through a single day without being rational, without considering that things may not be what they seem and what appears to be true might not be. Advertising is the prime source of deception prompting skepticism in rational people. The claims of competing brands simply can’t all be true and very likely none are. Political ads are worse. There are lies damn lies and political talking points. Anyone accepting all these claims at face value will soon be separated from their money and or exploited shamelessly. It is no wonder then that there is so little faith in “the truth” since we are given so little of it.
This need not be so. The good faith of rational people can overcome the deluge of falsehoods. It is perfectly reasonable to trust those who are true to themselves and to the people and the world around them and to strive to be so ourselves to deserve the trust of others. This is a lifetime project that all of us practice to some degree. In the posts that will sporadically follow I will attempt to follow that process and refer to authors and artists that have shown the way. Since it is a quest I hope others will join in good faith and share their experiences and lessons learned.
