Normal Thinking vs Backward Thinking

I was going to post my Christmas story today but I thought better of it and instead though I would lead in the new year with my thoughts on thinking.  As you will recall I did a whole 90 minute course on improving thinking which was geared towards achieving goals in life, big, small, creative or routine.  This in turn lead to all kinds of humorous ways of perverting my thinking or making fun of said thinking.  But there was an awful lot of “thinking” going on in 2016 which disturbed many people, myself included.

As chance would have it the PBS ran two interesting programs in the last couple of months, one on the Reformation and one on Early Christianity.  Both programs invoked my thinking beyond religion into the trap groups of people can fall into by charismatic leaders.  Some may not even be true leaders but instead just good speakers and what might have been a good idea, thought or movement rapidly sinks into a morass of personal agendas and ideas that were never intended by the originator.  Part of the Early Christianity program dealt with the conflict of various followers of Jesus and then the various apostles in what they thought was the “right” way of thinking about Jesus.  Some felt that the teachings of Jesus was the key to Christianity while others thought his end was the most important basis of Christianity.  Now that is a fundamental difference in thinking.  From there it was not hard to see how the diversity of religion occurred.  Again the same thing started over with the Reformation as others thought Luther was not drastic enough in his returning to teachings of the holy scripture.

I take that as the example as I look at the current mode of thinking declines into degrading lies, hatred, racism and so much that is unworthy of humanity.  How did all of this type of thinking get so much traction?  Furthermore how did viewers, listeners and readers fall into the trap of countenancing this type of rhetoric and allowing it into our homes via television, radio and computers?  How can it be that such a large number of the population has lost their sense of discernment, their core values or the ability to think for themselves in a way that is uplifting not only for themselves but towards all of humanity?  Forgive the worn out comparison of the Romans feeding the mass frenzy in the coliseum but is this where we are being herded?

So when I title this normal thinking vs. backward thinking I hope my readers can appreciate that I am not wanting to disparage anyone but rather get them to pause at the politeness of the mirror.