Chapter 5

Few Thoughts about Thinking

Thinking originated in the olden days, when our reactions and antidotes were ill-fitting. The activity continues to follow more or less the same style, making, our corrective steps, not only not apt, but also dangerous.

A culprit is Hiding in Thinking

In my hub ‘An Easy and Permanent solution to All Our issues’, I did arrive at a conclusion. A rather permanent and quick solution to all the issues facing our race is a simple one. Identify, derive, and adopt, an appropriate way to think.

In fact, this conclusion is only a little refinement and elaboration of a rather intuitive deduction, a violent human society can inspire. Our current way of thinking is not at all an appropriate one. Else, we would already have been thinking about those we are likely to face, and no issue would have come up in the normal course of time. Also, thinking is the only element of our life that we do not share with any other constituent of the living world.

I agree, an immediate fall-out is, this kind of reasoning puts all the blame for the lack of an orderly ambience, solely on thinking. Well, that is a good reason for the human society to be naturally a violent one, though it does not share the issues of mating and food gathering that puts all the other forms of life, routinely into violence. Also, as a corollary, one can say that had we taken efforts to learn and incorporate an appropriate style of thinking, we would have been leading a totally different life, one free of all that is causing concern these days.

About thinking, Think afresh

I therefore think, we now need to think afresh, about thinking. How do we know, we are doing it right, especially when we do not take any efforts to learn it, and also teach others, unlike all other things. Isn’t there a better way? And, were we following the ‘better’ way all these while, how better wouldn’t have been our life?

I am amused that nobody ever gave a thought to this. More so, when such is not at all the case with all other activities that are part of our life. For example, take any activity we do, like walking, talking, or sleeping. We take pains to learn of the optimum methods to follow, and also to teach and train our young ones. In all these cases, we instantly recognize the need to take efforts for doing all these in the most befitting manner, both from the ends of the task at hand and that of the doer. So, what do we do? We spend time and efforts to learn those properly, and also make it a point to refresh or update ourselves regularly. In addition, we make elaborate arrangements to teach our young, such that they follow the proper way, whenever they start doing things on their own. But, neither do we learn, nor do we teach, how to think.

How come We never Thought about Thinking

Why did it happen, thus? How come, our forefathers missed the whole activity of thinking. Certainly, there would have been a reason. I think, thinking would have been the first, and perhaps the only reliable path that gave them a good amount of pleasure and an ambience of comfort, the weather and the wilderness posing serious, and more or less permanent, threats. Moreover, thinking could easily grant them the ability to derive pleasure at will. Of course, they would have been blown over completely by its versatile nature, all the ideas or questions about its manner, composition, and other features of merit as well as demerit, even if there were a few, dying a natural death. So, in our past, use of thinking seems to be of a subdued nature, except for deriving pleasure, and also for suppressing displeasure. Naturally, the available literature of those eras are full of arousal and exhilaration, or suppression and tragedy, ideas that suit either abundance of joy or deep sorrow.

What we Missed about Thinking

So, we should now be thinking a lot about thinking, and addressing the questions that arise. Like, how to do this activity? Does it have any prerequisites? What all will be constituting the proper style of thinking? How to establish it as another fundamental activity in the lines of talking or walking? And, how urgent is the need? So far, as suggested earlier, our forefathers would have been using this activity with the sole idea of deriving pleasure at will. As a result, they missed all the other facets, an exploration into which, perhaps could have changed the human race completely.

What Thinking Did

Thinking is the one that differentiates human from all the others of the living world. Our forefathers have been utilizing it to the brim, whether the current situation demanded it or not, surviving records of the past, show. Naturally, they would have been thinking a lot, whenever and wherever there was a transaction of whatever nature. One can be sure, each instance of thinking shall be bringing up fresh, unseen dimensions to whatever is the issue at stake. So, fresh questions or answers continue to crop up, and gather some attention, if not dictating the essence and spirit of the transaction in full. Why? Because human is an imaginative being. In fact, we think in as many a dimension as possible about whatever we are currently seized of, almost all of those being active simultaneously. Whereas, all the other forms of life shall be going ahead with the current engagement with single-minded dedication and complete involvement. (Consequently, our actions and reactions at any time shall turn out to be one aligned with any of those dimensions. At any instant, actions or reactions that are not in line with the current aim or path will have to get judged as errors. So, we now term human as an error prone species and console ourselves by proclaiming error as a sign of intelligence, whereas, our early brothers chose to register all others as superior! Suppose it didn’t happen thus. Many of us would have been deeply engaged in solving this mystery of excess dimensions, and some of us would have even succeeded in it!!)

Our Half-baked Thinking

Since we have been living in this manner for many a generation, now we are fully tuned to identify, observe, and relish, quite a few dimensions to whatever can elicit a reaction from us. Some of these grab our interest acutely, and will turn out to be of great significance to our life and living. Perhaps, a few others remain as random thoughts for some time to come, and another few, forgotten for good.

We kept adding to a kitty, all such dimensions or random thoughts. Over time, our admiration for the kitty crossed the boundaries of mutual exchanges, becoming the earliest, original creation of the mankind. Which transformed such random signals into a collection of abstractions and cemented those as the natural features of the human viewpoint. This phenomenon gives rise to very many attributes and priorities, as well as transactions and responses, and is collectively identified and greatly celebrated as our cultural wealth. At any time, many, we celebrate, and a few, we despise, but all of these keep us busy in a unique activity.

Now see, thinking gives rise to some matters of significance, as well as quite a few random ones that could even turn out to be destructive.

Thinking leads to Half-baked Results

However, there is something that takes place just before all that any form of life may do or even refrain from doing. This is true for us also, and it happens mostly in instances where what takes place is not a well planned or meditated action. In fact, we may refer to such instances also by the word thinking, but it is for the want of a better word. This certainly is not the activity we should be meaning, when we say thinking.

Now think of this. For each and every activity that takes place with the human race, every other species of life can also boast of something of comparable nature or complexity. Of course, thinking is an exception. In all the other activities, there is someone from the animal kingdom who is better at it. Naturally, early humans faced severe inferiority complex, and had to do something to feel superior to all other forms of life. They seem to have taken ample trouble to chart a distinct style for themselves, and had been making efforts for passing it on to future generations. They tried and succeeded to win by style, where strength or skill was not at all a match. Over time, it resulted in our current living style.

Come to thinking, and see that so far, nobody felt a need to think about it. Presumably, the current style of thinking, at all times, was delivering satisfactory results, there being no other being to compare to.

Half-baked Style Matures Partially?

Ages passed. Now, the style we continued to nurture, propelled us to a burgeoning, unique, and incomparable spot among the whole of the living world. (This is not to suggest that had there been no such style, we would not have been in a much better state now!) And, physical talents including strength have become attributes of curiosity like smell or color, all the acts of significance being taken over by products of intellectual transaction. In these circumstances, there is no real reason to hold on to the complexities of style. Also, there is unavoidable reason to keep ourselves active in intellectual commerce, and remain ready to face hurdles ahead. Towards this, both keeping our attributes well polished and deriving new ones to tackle fresh challenges are essential.

I think, so far, nobody has given a serious thought about thinking, though we all have been taking mindful and sincere efforts to modulate or direct the outcome of thinking. Perhaps, the outcome was easily visible, and thinking, a hidden activity. In these circumstances, we now need to start in earnest, thinking seriously about thinking.

Now, an Ideal Way to Think

To begin with, let us define it. As mentioned earlier, something takes place just before all that any form of life may do or even refrain from doing. Currently, this is what we identify as thinking.

What is the ideal way to think, and what are its requirements? Should we formulate such a way and make it a part of the things, our young ones should learn? What role do a language play in all this? If it is a role of significance, shouldn’t we always take efforts to formulate or choose a language that is the best for thinking?

Also, as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, whenever we are to engage in any form of transaction, unseen dimensions crop up and gather our attention. And it was sparking fresh thoughts. Now, with the phenomenal growth, the human race achieved so far, such unseen dimensions should be on the wane. So, the sparks shall be showing a downward trend, making thinking to be on a lesser scale, unless new vistas open in the sphere of knowledge.

Ideal Thinking comes from Ideal Living

Suppose human race was always having a ‘patented’ style of living. Logically, that style would have been far different from the living style of all other members of the animal world. Suppose also, the style was giving great importance to intellectual commerce, and far less for the matters we share with all the other dwellers of this planet.

Now suppose we did not have a habit of teaching our young ones. They would have been picking up whatever they found fit for familiarizing, learning, or imbibing. Just as intelligent systems ‘learn’, both by acquiring new facts and by committing errors and learning from those, they would have become masters of whatever expertise kindled and caught their imagination.

Final answer – A Brand New Lifestyle

To me, it is very clear now. We humans do not have a proper style of living because we never thought about it. Our thoughts never traveled in that direction, since our primary reason to think was one of deriving pleasure, rather than for meeting the real challenges of living. We have been facing many instances of failure, and a few of success. All the instances of success, we keep hoarding, and the ones of failure, we overlook as just another natural element of life. All the hoarded ones get cemented as a part of our life, each of those being greatly celebrated as human-specific abstractions, like a ‘favorite’ color, a ‘sweet’ sound, or a ‘heavenly’ sight. These abstractions effectively hide from ourselves, our failure to have an appropriate lifestyle.

So, to design or evolve a new lifestyle, we will have to take a few steps.

The first one, that too a very significant one, is to let these abstractions go.  Towards which, the first need is to establish, how these things came into being and what did it so. Think of the early days, when knowledge itself was yet to appear, and when there was nothing specific to any issue. Sure, we would have been noticing successes and failures and reporting those, and getting applauded or corrected as the case may be. But what appears, acknowledged, and reported will tend to be a version of the original event that is unrecognizably clouded by whatever are the current priorities of the one who is noticing and reporting the issue. Now, though it is impossible to come up with a proper reaction or a fitting antidote, some one would have been administering appreciative or corrective steps. So, not only that it is not an apt reaction to the occasion, or an exact answer to the issue, but also is an ill-fitting solution. And every ill-fitting solution adds more problem than what it solves. A fresh problem, and the associated blame, is now alive.

This perhaps is the most significant issue, the early humans faced, and which we continue to face. How to honor, when we don’t know whom to, or release ourselves from blame, when logically, we are blameworthy? Perhaps each one claimed more merit than the other one, or each one pointed to the other one as more blameworthy. This, over many such iterations, metamorphosed into what we now term as generalization. Here, everyone gets appreciated, without having a star, or blamed, without pointing to a culprit.

Still over time, the root of generalization, abstraction, has taken over the heart of the human intellect. When we abstract, we get the feeling of knowing things without having a real idea about anything. We can also talk for hours about it, without the ability, rather the need itself, to make it result in something. And there is no chance of a reckon-able failure, since it is always the one who is at the receiving end, who will have to struggle to make sense out of all that is abstract.

So, our brand new lifestyle needs to be one that can lead us to a life without abstractions, where of course, there will hardly be a need to generalize. Yes, we can lead such a life, since we presently have a very good idea about everything, and are capable and well equipped to walk our talk.