The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting Wed, 27 Oct 1993 01:00:02 JST

mugwump? she grew from rationality to this... what you think?

tink
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Battling Ideas Don't Grow
Copyright 1993 Mike Barker

Thinking by yourself can be lonely.

In fact, you are likely to tread tiredly around the same old ruts, without gaining much except to make the well-trodden path slightly deeper and harder to avoid.

However, thinking with other people also has dangers.

Perhaps the greatest of these is the "T.V." theory of knowledge, which assumes that you turn on the channel (find the correct book, teacher, or other font of wisdom) then sit back and absorb knowledge. This theory of knowledge has been held by many, and can be seen reinforced in lecture halls, churches, and other forums where the leader(s) simply present the knowledge without question or feedback of any kind.

Of course, there are times when an expert actually can present information effectively and clearly this way, so we should not completely reject the "T.V." theory of knowledge. But I believe it is important to understand that there are other ways of thinking with other people.

Another common theory of knowledge is "survival of the fittest", loosely based on a simplified metaphor of evolution. This adversarial approach to reasoning together typically assumes that competition will inevitably lead to strength, that battling and destroying the weak somehow improves what is left. There is an assumption that in the arena of thought, as in other arenas, the game is a zero-sum game, with winner and loser somehow exchanging some limited and precious resource. Having defeated all others, the winning idea gains the gold!

This idea is enshrined in debates, the legal system, and so many other parts of our society that some people mistakenly assume it is the only way to refine knowledge. It is somewhat cruel and aggressive, but, they explain, this is necessary to find out which idea is stronger.

Perhaps it has escaped their attention that when I give you knowledge, I do not have to give it up. In fact, knowledge is perhaps the best example of a non-zero-sum game, where everyone can win, and there need be no losers.

It may have also escaped their attention that simply defeating others does not improve or refine an idea (or a person). Certainly trampling down the surroundings may make this locale appear higher, but such an optical illusion is simply a cheat and deception of the senses, without any real benefit.

I find it amusing that the advocates of such an approach seem to have misunderstood poor old Darwin. He wrote about the evolution of the species, not the individual, and was more concerned with how differentiation and a multitude of species develops than with any winners and losers in the race. I suspect he might be quite surprised to hear people using his theories as some kind of justification for combat, since interrelated species and mutual benefits seem to be so integral to his thinking. Why, in the evolutionary world, the insignificant little ant or cockroach is quite a worthy contestant, with a much longer record of accomplishment than mammals, for example.

Another approach sometimes taken is the analytic. One form of that is the taxonomic filer, patiently trying to divide the world into various boxes in the hope that the number and pattern of the boxes will somehow help understanding. Other forms include those who break down thoughts into components, dredging psychology, sociology, and other disciplines for patterns to explain pieces of the whole. While such analyses can be helpful, they are not interested in creating or adding to the collection of thoughts, but rather with classifying and rationalizing some existing part of the menagerie.

A common outgrowth of the analytic theory of knowledge can be found lurking in libraries and other academic surroundings. These antiquarians feel that thinking is a matter of citations, references, and dusty age. With an adequate weight of revered experts and moldy references, even a simple summary and rehash of dated thinking may seem splendid to these vampires of thought. Do not fear them, just let the sunshine of new thoughts shine into their crypts.

There are other metaphors and fables that may be told about the ways that people try to think together, but I think perhaps one of the most appropriate for our times, when we live in a global ecology of ideas, is that of the farmer of thoughts.

Imagine, if you will, this black thumbed oldster patiently sowing, seeding, fertilizing, mulching, watering, and in time, harvesting a rich crop of thoughts shared freely with neighbors. At times he may do some thinning and transplanting, or perhaps even try some grafting to improve the crops. As an old farm hand, he remembers that a weed is just a flower out of place, and even when weeding is needed, is careful and slow to avoid damaging the healthy growing ideas all around. Sometimes he may even let a weed grow freely, preferring to wait until after harvesting to clean up and sort out what has grown.

If you told the farmer that you were going to "improve" the crop by killing other plants until only one was left in the field, why, I suspect he would laugh and tell you that was the silliest way of farming he'd ever heard. Even a weak plant often yields well if you take the time to fertilize, water, aerate, or make sure the sun gets to it.

Further, since my ideal farmer has such a black thumb with ideas, he has noticed that "single-cropping" doesn't give you anywhere near the yield you get with mixed crops, so he mixes in jokes and serious material from a number of different sources, and certainly doesn't argue when his neighbor brings over some extra fertilizer for the field, or even a few new plants that he hasn't tried before.

Say, there's some hoeing to do over here, so I'm going to have to turn off the T.V., skip the fights, close up the laboratory, and get to work, or my farmer will have to do all the work himself.

It's been a real pleasure talking to you, and I hope these seeds do as well in your garden as they have in mine. Candidly, I find grubbing in the garden tiring and boring sometimes, but when the flowers bloom under the sun, or those fresh vegetables are ready for the table, well, all the effort is worth it.

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