When a tribal chief in South Africa heard of what happened to America on 9/11, he was so moved by the tragedy that befell the people of that faraway place, he went through his own possessions, picked a few cows, sheep, chicken and what else, and offered to gift them to George W. Bush whom he thought was his counterpart, the tribal chief of the place called America.
We tend to laugh at this sort of behavior because it
highlights two aspects of the human character. The first is the nobility of the
human person who instinctively stands up and labors to alleviate the pain
suffered by another human being. The second aspect is that of the human person
who still relies on his instinct to make decisions, at times even consequential
ones. Humans do this while knowing that such decisions can be faulty — and do
it even though nature has equipped them with a brain that’s capable of making
faultless decisions based on the analysis and synthesis of available data.
While that was a real story which had visible dimensions
for all to see — such as the destruction of the twin towers, the help offered
by the tribal chief and the size of his own wealth compared to the American
economy — nevertheless we are bound to ask if something like this can happen at
the nonphysical level. The answer is yes, it can happen and did in fact happen
to Cal Thomas who gifted his readers a meager ration of cerebral food, thinking
he was offering them a substantial meal.
Cal Thomas did that by writing an article under the
title: “Where have all the thinkers gone? No wonder our politics is a mess,”
published on January 4, 2023 in the New York Post. His complaint is that no
deep thinking is done in America, the reason why the country is in a mess. And
so, he set out to analyze the situation and give advice on what to do to remedy
what ails the country. The trouble, however, is that Cal Thomas had no better
advice to give the American public than the tribal chief of South Africa had a significant
gift to give George W. Bush.
Here is how Cal Thomas views America’s problem:
“Perhaps the lack of thinking and intellectual depth in
our politics is caused by instruments and websites that do the thinking for us.
We now tune in to whatever newspaper, cable network or website reinforces our
beliefs and care little about how ideas were developed, whether they work and
who benefits most from them”.
Comment: It is obvious that Cal Thomas is so
snared by the web of everyday politics, his view of America if not that of the
world, has not grown wider than the tip of his pen. He blames the lack of
thinking in American politics on instruments and websites that do the thinking
for a public which tunes in to the media outlets that reinforce their set of
beliefs while caring little about how ideas are developed or whether they work.
And here is how Cal Thomas sees the solution to that
problem:
“Just as playing tennis or golf with someone better than
yourself can improve your game, so does keeping company with smarter people —
and particularly those with different points of view — make you sharper and
better able to vote intelligently and elect people more worthy of holding
public office than many who are currently in elective positions or campaigning
for them”.
Comment: It is obvious that Cal Thomas holds on to the narrow
view that to raise the intellectual level of the general population, it will be
necessary to first sharpen and deepen the view of voters so that they may vote
intelligently, thus elect the people who will do a better job at governing the
country. But how deep a thought is it for a journalist to observe that the
country lacks deep thinking, thus suggests that the it should bring into debate
people who hold different points of view? Well, this by itself does not
constitute deep thinking.
But if Cal Thomas already knows this, he must have
realized that the stifling of serious debate in America is the root cause of the
problem. Even though he specifically mentioned the need to welcome and
encourage all kinds of views into debate, he did not say why this is not
happening at this time. Had he done so, and suggested that the solution to this
singular problem would go a long way toward solving many of America’s other
problems — would have displayed the depth of his thinking. In fact, had he
engaged in a discussion at this level would have given the readers of Cal
Thomas a denser food for thought than telling them they need to be smart and
elect better candidates to govern the country.
So then, why is it that Cal Thomas was unable or
unwilling to mention that the root cause of America’s mess is non other than
the stifling of serious debates by those who would cancel anyone that rises to
question their dearly held dogmas?