more th!nking...

"'It doesn't matter how intelligent you are if you don't use your brain...'
...Rigidly held views can short-circuit the thinking...
More and more, large numbers of people substitute PC views, hard-line political ideology, or cultish balderdash for hard-won knowledge and flexible, powerful reasoning and problem-solving skills. Some bias or ideology is inevitable of course. Everyone needs beliefs and a working value system not only to make it through the day, but as a necessary part of the mental apparatus to form and test thoughts. To paraphrase an old wisdom, the only way to be completely without prejudice or bias is to be completely indifferent, or completely ignorant. The uniqueness of our individual genes and experiences predisposes us to a certain outlook or attitude...
...In American society, business, and government, time and time again, we see signs of the same stubborn, hard-headed approach-stake out a position and by God stand by it, come hell or high water. Do not waffle or shift, even when new information demands reevaluation. Change is a sign of backtracking, which is a sign of weakness. But how weak or ineffectual is it to change when the very world we live in changes by the day, the hour, the minute, and the access to information recording that change is instantaneous? Strategy can be the same, but in a world of continual flux and recalibration, thinking and tactics need to be fluid, adaptive...
...Politics, which is just the relationship between people and power, cannot be an end in itself. Unless a democratic society has a shared theme, there is no starting point for dialogue and understanding...That theme must be reason based on empirical evidence, an idea that transcends race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or income. Reason is by its very nature tolerant and inclusive. Reason admits mistakes. Reason takes in new data. Reason builds and learns and adapts. Reason goes by results."
Michael R LeGault, "Th!nk"