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~We’re All Delighted … Dumbing Us Down By The Numbers!
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Monday, July 09, 2007NOW I GET IT ... FINALLY!!! It always made sense to me ... doing things the way I do (hey, I’m just like everyone else in this regard, whatever I do ... however I do it ... always makes perfect sense to me when I doing it ... usually). I’ve actually had debates bordering on full-on arguments with folks I respect ... some who are actually peers and colleagues of mine ... about the topic of dumbing things down ... and dumbing things NOT!
Good Afternoon,
This will be my second blog posting of the day ... very unusual for me! My first was posted earlier on *Zaadz at Joseph's Blog about the Business As A Social Calling ... Part 1. As I've commented here, my blog on *Zaadz and my pod on Social Influence (basically a discussion forum anywhere else but on *Zaadz) are organized around the idea of community and social impact. I will continue posting here at BlogNostra about the general topics of human performance and decision-making (especially the high-level kind of decision-making).
What you would be likely to notice that remains most common in both blogs would be my allegiance to the idea of:
"Creating Futures That Work!"
In this regard I've come to a substantial personal realization ... I've always found myself resisting writing or speaking about the 3-5-7 ... Easy Steps-Characteristics-Traits ... Of Success-Leadership-Happiness ... ... I'm guessing you get the point.
Also, I've always equally found myself resisting the prescriptive use of examples for the sake of making a challenging topic seem accessible and simpler than I actually think it to be. This same thinking would apply I guess to another thing I am sometimes accused of doing, i.e.: using uncommon and/or difficult language in my writing and presentations.
I have a confession:
I've often referred to the books, programs, etc. that start with The 3-5-7 Steps ... or ones that depend on example after example to make their point as books, programs, etc. for stupid people in pent up frustration at both the practice of doing this and their damn popularity.
FWIW I don't think my opinion on this will change too much very soon ...
My realization: Using these techniques to sell a book ... or make a program more appealing ... of for any reason whatsoever ... doesn't actually help us to get the material in a way that builds our ability to think or own the material for ourselves ... in fact it dumbs us down!
We have a predilection for wanting to know ... for certainty. Yet, every time we pursue THE ANSWER/S ... we get a little bit dumber ... we become a little less able to remember the QUESTION/S. Our education has become about gathering a collection of facts, finding the commonalities, building mathematical certainties ... avoiding uncertainty at virtually all costs ... ideally finding the 3-5-7 Simple/Easy Steps To Whatever ...
What I realized ... what my personal revelation was all about was that while the path I've pursued hasn't given me very many certainties along the way ... and I've definitely not found any simple or easy steps to anything ...
I seldom if ever find that the examples that are unique and specific to one thing apply to another thing equally ... seldom if ever have I found that ... WE LIVE IN A WORLD COMPRISED OF THINGS THAT ARE "JUST LIKE" ANYTHING ELSE ... SIMPLY, WE DO NOT!
The idea that one thing and another are just alike usually sends me into a rage when I'm presenting to a group. The intellectual laziness that wants to hang every new idea on a tree of familiar ideas drives me absolutely crazy!
Yet I finally get it ... we are trained almost from birth to be dumbed down:
We have been trained to accept that there are experts with every answer, and that our own non-expert thinking will never equal the thinking of those experts out there.
So we look for easy, simple step ... examples ... anything that will serve us since we've given up our birthright to thinking for ourselves.
I'm guessing I'm not making any friends with this particular posting ... but I find it easier to tell it like I see it ... keeping the BU---IT! down to a minimum. Hey, you may not agree ... but I bet I have at least some of you thinking!!! `'~>
Best regards,
Joseph Riggio, Social Ontologist
Princeton, NJ,
Makes sense to me Joseph.
Also, the other day my 7 year old daughter said to me whilst I was explaining something to her, “I get it - it’s just like xxxx - but it’s different!”
Paul,
It’s great ... isn’t it! (Learning from our children ...)
Joseph
Absolutely ...
Joseph, this makes more and more sense to me. Our entire social learning system is designed to tell us how to do in order to avoid the ‘pitfalls’ and shore up against the ‘tides of life’ and I’m slowly learning that to have the experience of stuff not working out the way we think it might is the true elixir of life.
I did a teleseminar program with a bunch of people on ‘how to attract a perfect relationship’ and it evolved into an awareness tool.. every week people came back and said ‘I’ve realised this about me or I’ve discovered this’. It was very rewarding for all of us.. and I’m feeling my way into selling this for what it is. An awareness tool. Isn’t that all we can do in the end.. become more aware, more present and just be. And that’s a rhetorical question.
with love and respect
peta
resurfacing
