We are in the irreversible process of losing what we have known as our American culture, a process that stems from human weaknesses of the brain and/or mind. Recent research explains the division between those who would preserve an original culture (conservatives) and those who would accelerate change (progressive liberals).
Born in 1934 by the “greatest generation,” which carried us through the Great Depression of the ’30s and World War II, I saw America’s internationally respected cultural teaching of academics, patriotism, morality, honor, self-reliance, personal accountability, economics and the total meaning of our founding documents (Declaration of Independence and Constitution). Boys and girls were taught to respect and follow the proper behavior of what was expected of those carrying their respective individual genitalia at birth as either male or female. At least until the 1960s we had an admirable American character within that culture and were accused by outsiders of being immodestly proud.
Only exceptionally rare parents intervene today to produce adolescents or adults who will exhibit the above cultural attributes under the seriously flawed influence of contemporary institutions charged with the cultural development of our youth.
We erroneously operate under the false assumption that humans are rational beings swayed by evidence and reason, so that if the more intelligent of us unite, we will grow to think alike and dominate that portion of the population of lower intelligence with whom we disagree. Recent research in heuristics concludes that intelligence is not significantly correlated with rationality (having a high IQ does not mean you are more rational than someone having a lower IQ).
“Critical thinkers” question all previous assumptions or suppositions that may have influenced subsequent conclusions and/or behavior, especially when previous results appear unsatisfactory. For our culture to recover sufficient unity toward advantageous or beneficial behavior we must in some way attract our general public and private educational process toward critical thinking as a habit.
If we continue our present errant path, soon we will come to significant violence in settling unnecessary differences.
In formative years, young brains are being infected with irrational and untrue ideas that skew all subsequent thinking possibly for the remainder of their lives.
Very few Americans desire the truth; instead they search for any and all possible evidence, regardless of how improbable, that will reinforce what they already believe or what they prefer to believe (or may have been taught to believe), while ignoring all the evidence to the contrary. This brain/mental weakness is called ”confirmation bias” in heuristics (the study of intuitive methods of problem solving).
Confirmation bias is just one of the many flaws in human thinking that prevent correct analysis or rational thought (regardless of intelligence level). Heuristic flaws are confounding an increasing number of Americans, more of whom become disturbed when faced with irrefutable evidence of error in their thinking. The new term for their condition is called “dysrationalia.” They not only suffer from cognitive dissonance but from dissonance with reality/fact/truth.
Thus, progressive liberalism is caused by dysrationalia and is a disorder both individually and socially. It is so prevalent that our dictionaries define it erroneously as a benign activist movement. The true definition of progressive liberalism is cultural degeneration by the legitimization and/or normalization of deviant behavior.
This is not about minorities or race. To understand the cultural decline read “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” by Charles Murray.
Deviant behavior here refers to the decline of social behaviors that causes harm to society; once such was scorned but now is commonplace. Specifically: Premarital pregnancy, broken homes/families, dependency politics, replacing freedoms and rights in our values, claiming non-existent rights, needing a high prison population, unexplainable suicide and drug addiction rate increases, vulgar public speech; lower levels of civility and tolerance; searching for safety from conservative thought by “canceling”/censoring (eliminating freedom of speech); denial of capitalism and promoting socialism; accusing productive people of an unfair advantage; freeing habitual criminals; allowing illegal, unvetted immigration; encouraging women to kill their babies; promising free stuff for votes; boys in girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms; encouraging the confusion of gender; accepting homosexuals as married and for parenting; prosecution of innocents (conservatives and Christians) for having principles; accepting barbarity; coddling the lazy; encouraging victim mentalities; employing progressive teachers and/or professors; devaluation of our currency as the cruelest tax of all; and shooters.
Jim N. Taylor lives in Harlingen.
