Tag: critical thinking

The Madness of Crowds – What Ever Happened to Critical Thinking?

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds – Charles McKay 1841

Critical thinking has been banned, it’s no longer allowed,
GroupThink’s now the edict, we must all follow the crowd;
We’re being bullied and forced to all think the same,
And if we fail to conform we’re given some nasty name.

Activists agendas create a set of nonsensical  rules,
Which we must all adhere to, or be labelled as fools,
Or racists, or deniers, or something much worse;
A free thinking mind is becoming a curse.

Fail to follow the narrative, then be left in no doubt
The woke mob will come baying to cancel you out.
Common sense and logic lie abandoned in tatters,
Some weird political correctness  is now all that matters.

The order of the world is being changed,
The old values discarded, or being rearranged,
We’re becoming unhinged, believing in fantasy tales,
Such as man is at risk from what he exhales.

A totalitarian environment; what to think we are told,
No reason, no debate, thoughts completely controlled,
Facts conjured out of fiction, history rewritten or ignored,
It’s an Orwellian future we’re all racing toward.

 

New Year Resolution 2021

“The sad truth about humanity…is that people believe what they’re told. Maybe not the first time, but by the hundredth time, the craziest of ideas just becomes a given.”
Neal Shusterman

My new year resolution
Will be different this year,
As I feel I’m missing out
On the panic and fear,
So I’m abandoning critical thinking,
And instead of being challenged by that,
I’m going out to buy
A dumbing-down hat.

Then I can be taken in
By all of the media hype,
Believe the relentless propaganda,
All the BS and tripe
And I won’t form the opinions
That I used to keep,
I can just nod in agreement,
Become one of the sheep.
I’ll stop all of my questioning,
Just learn to accept,
And worship the politicians
Even though they’re inept.
Forget about their manifestos
That they choose never to follow,
And all the promises they make
That turn out to be hollow.
I’ll appreciate that Covid
Is just the worst thing ever,
And destroying our economies
Was really so very clever.
I’ll believe in “the science”,
Pretend it really exists,
Instead of wanting to throw things,
Or slit my wrists!
I’ll pretend that CO2
Causes the planet to warm,
And that we’ll all be dead soon
If we fail to conform.
Believe that renewable energy
Is not all about money,
And claiming that it’s “green”
Is not all that funny.
Imagine that Extinction Rebellion
Is not really extreme,
The child Greta is not as ridiculous
As she might always seem.
Accept the BLM movement
Could be about race,
And demonstrations of subservience
Really are not a disgrace.
That the social media giants
Are not a dangerous breed,
And that my personal privacy
Is not something I need.
That being politically correct
Is a must at all times,
And not following the narrative
Is the worst of all crimes.
That our freedom speech
Has no right to be free,
And our thoughts need correcting
Quite radically ……..
Hold on for a minute,
Stop just where you are!
Being turned into ‘woke’
Will be one step too far.
By wearing the hat
Perhaps the cost is too high,
How can I meekly accept
Without asking why?

Happy 2021
May the ‘thoughts’ be with you.



I Am A Contrarian

I am a contrarian,
A skeptic through and through,
Don’t follow the narrative,
Like I’m told I must do.
I am my own person,
Not some left wing classification,
And I believe in free speech,
But not the Marxist interpretation.
I’ve retained my sense and reason,
Not been politically corrected,
And by the woke ideology
I’ve not been infected.
A critical thinker at heart,
When critical thoughts aren’t allowed,
Not in awe of the media,
By their brainwashing not cowed.
 Consider myself an empiricist,
Doesn’t mean I lack emotions,
I just don’t confuse them with facts,
Coming up with ridiculous notions.
An environmentalist as well,
In the true meaning of the word,
Not a climate change disciple,
Following a religion that’s absurd.
Not frightened by debate,
Don’t need to call people a name,
Don’t feel responsible for our past,
Not looking for someone to blame.
I used to be one of many,
Perhaps now one of the few,
Just shows what dumbing-down
And indoctrination can do.
Being a questioner and a thinker
Makes me a strange kind of man,
But I’ve no plans to change,
Proud to be a contrarian.  
TOOTG Copyright 2016-2020 01

Can My Poetry Save the World?

“Two things are infinite – the Universe and human stupidity and I’m not sure about the Universe”
Albert Einstein

TPOTG Thinking 01 with Frame


Can my poetry save the world?
Can it drag it back from the brink?
By using common sense and logic,
Encourage people to think.

Stop reality being replaced
By what they want us to believe;
The dumbing down of a generation,
Now so gullible, so naïve.

Where facts from emotions
Are no longer separated,
And with the most irrational of fears
Millions are so easily indoctrinated.

Critical thinking by rhetoric
Is now being replaced,
And those who try to reason
With so many challenges are faced,

Finding debate and discussion
Is no longer being used,
 The group think must be worshipped,
Or they will be abused.

Teaching what to, not how to,
Educators being tasked,
An enquiring mind’s questions
Can no longer be asked.

So will reading my verse
Make people stop and reflect?
Refocus their minds,
Maybe make them suspect
That through relentless propaganda
It’s a new world order some seek;
Forcing their dangerous ideology
Onto the uninformed and the weak.