Social Criticism is Lazy Thinking

Why do people complain about the state of society? We all do this sometimes. We complain about the Bush administration, Dick Cheney, pollution, economic policy, declining morals, intrusive government, loss of civil rights. corporate greed, housing prices (My personal favorite!), the status of women, and a bunch of other things.

My very favorite topic of criticism happens to be the quality of thinking that underlies much of modern society. That's why I keep blogging about social pollution. I 'm not a super-genius but it doesn't take one to see how many decisions are based on bad information, emotions whipped up by activists and politicians, and appeals to selfishness.

What am I going to do about it? I'll offer a list of vaguely defined things to do. I think you should pick something and decide to do it. If you want to work with someone then send me an email.

1. Become an activist for science education! Any democratic society where many people think evolution is "just a theory"  andf chemicals are bad for you is cricling the drain.

2. Become an activist for critical thinking lessons in schools. There need to be lessons on logic and on the thinking lessons like those developed by Edward De Bono. (See www.edwdebono.com/cort/index.cfm for more information.)

3. Create an outrageous Web site. Pick a bad idea you'd like to shine a light on, and create a Web site like eatbabies.com. Yes, that is a real Web site.

4. Create an outrageous public demonstration. Naked chicks painted like animals works for PETA. Maybe something similar will work for fighing social pollution.

5. Write about the myths and baseless ideas that underlie modern life in some area, like social policy or lifestyles or spending habits. Pick something and get your work published whereever you can.

6. Badger politicians by auditing what they say and what they write. Publish the results in letters to the editor, Web content, or whatever you've got. If there is a public meeting or question and answer session maybe you can ask a valid but embarrasing question.

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Measuring Social Pollution

OK, so we all know that society is plagued by bad ideas. We do know that don't we? Good. Maybe we should devise a way of measuring social pollution. Some of you may be familiar with Harper's Index, a list of anecdotes and statistics. The Index is really only for entertainment, but the items listed do give an amusing look at the nature of our times.

Well, maybe the ideas that characterize our times deserve the same treatment. The index could include statistics like these, from a 2005 Gallup Poll of 1,002 Americans:

• 41% of respondents believe in ESP


• 42% of respondents believe in telepathy


• 51% believe that aliens have visited Earth

Ideas related to science, technology, morals, and ethics could also be good Index items I think. How many American's prefer to avoid food grown with chemicals? (NOTE: Food is chemicals. Plants make their own pesticides.) How many people think its okay to steal from a chain store but not from a locally-owned corner store?

I tried to actually create a Social Pollution Index like the one I just described. Tracking down enough information to publish a montly index turned out to be tough! Maybe I should return to that idea; it could even be the focus of my sociology blogs.

Hmmm...

FOOTNOTE: Social scientists may want to create a very different sort of index. This one would rate the level of social pollution in society by combining scores on variables such as superstition and technological literacy.

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Scientific Tracts

I was thinking about religious tracts, when this obvious idea hit me. You've probably seen those little booklets that contain religious messages contained in a mix of text and cartoons. Well, why should the religious have a lock on this means of communication?

Why not use tracts to promote science, logic, reason, humanism, and other worthy things. Use simple text and cartoons to make one point. A religious tract is written to convince you that you should accept Jesus Christ as your savior. A "scientific" tract could be written to convince people that global climate change is really happening, or to convince people to do something specific about the issue.

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