Large Fierce Mammal

Found shared upon the internets. Whosoever shall rise up and claimeth credible right of origin shall be duly credited.

“Understanding and being able to recognize and avoid logical fallacies is helpful in everything you do, whether it’s an argument, not being fooled by advertisements or politicians, choosing a good teacher who teaches from a solid foundation, or recognizing whether what you are being taught is what you need to learn.” ~ Maestro Adam Crown, The Four Fallacies of the Apocalypse

At its fundamentals, democracy — exercise of power by direct majority rule — is not what is actually meant when people and politicians refer to, “Western democracies”, “Making the world safe for democracy”, or declare someone/something, “A threat to democracy”. If everything was up to a popular vote, nobody would have time for anything other than making sure they kept an eye on what everyone else was getting up to, lest one day a gang shows up at the door with a line like, “We all decided that Joe’s family would be more comfortable living in your house, but he wants your wife to stay.”

And so we have the version we know and love today wherein elected representatives keep an eye on what other folks are up to so you don’t have to, passing laws to legitimize their decisions, and thus ensuring that if Joe ever does come after your house and wife, he can get it all straight up and legal with justice both done and seen to be.

Now of course I’m laying it on a bit (but only a bit) thick with this example, but recent history highlights how ready people are, as they always have been, to demand level playing fields  and evened scores with a cavalier disregard for such pesky speed bumps as some people are just more hard working, talented, or genetically blessed than you. That rules of evidence, due process, and innocence until proven guilty are even a thing. A slippery slope greased with calls to cast aside the aforesaid speed bumps in favour of unquestioned acceptance of any narrative in which the alleged offense and demographic of the victim come from a select and unassailable subset.

Extending from this is the present hopefully short lived but well earned and dangerously widespread loss of confidence in Science simultaneous with abandonment of any pretense at Critical Thinking, nor even a tenuous grasp of what that is. By comparison with such pronouncements as, “… chivalry is dead …” and “… the science is settled …” which are wrong no matter the source and how often repeated, and represent little beyond wasted breath in service to poverty of intellect, the power of Critical Thinking is demonstrably correct and foundational to the finest expression of what it is to be Human. Most commonly this will manifest in the actions of the practitioner and may in fact lead to no discernible action at all, at least externally and for observers who have failed to grasp that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The purpose of Critical Thinking is not to simply formulate a reaction. It is to ensure correctness of action.

All this having been said, it has happened before, will again, and is about to happen now, that a subject has been explored and explained so thoroughly and perfectly that all I can offer is a preamble to the main event.

Set aside the next quarter hour to spend some quality time with Maestro Crown, and take notes.