Skepticicsm

The requirement for critical thinking

I was not born a skeptic—quite the opposite. My parents were charter members of the Great Generation -- the generation that believed in authority and the authorities. If a word was written or broadcast, it was considered gospel. Often, a conversation would start with the phrase “They say....” I never knew who “they’ were, but my parents knew that “they” were always right. Examples - they say you should take vitamins, they say the economy will improve, they say it will rain tomorrow, etc. The fact that “they” were often wrong did not seem to disturb them much. I inherited no skeptical genes, and my upbringing gave no indication of what was to happen. I had to become a skeptic the old-fashioned way - I had to work at it.

I recall the day I lost my “naiveté virginity”. I was twelve years old in a history class. The teacher, a wiry Kiwi, had been a prisoner-of-war in the camp memorialized in the movie “Bridge Over the River Kwai”. He had been tortured, and his hands were severely scarred after these captors stripped off the skin, then bound them together so they healed into one useless blob. Perhaps this was the event that convinced him that all was not well with humankind. Or perhaps he had just completed reading George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and had learned about doublespeak. Regardless, he began the lesson with “Gentlemen” (I attended an upscale, traditional, English, all-boys school, wearing a blazer and cap, so we merited the term) “Gentlemen, I am going to give you a piece of advice that will serve you well for the rest of your lives. When you hear a politician speak, turn his words 180 degrees and you will be close to the truth. And not just politicians, but corporations and advertisements—almost everything that portrays a public face. They are all bald-faced liars.”

This had quite an impact, especially since he followed it with blistering examples from the daily newspaper. (As an aside, the next day, he began recruiting students and their parents to provide ‘safe-houses’ for political dissidents trying to escape the brutality of the government in South Africa at the time.) Over the ensuing years, I tested his theory, and, much to my consternation, it proved correct most of the time. It was so reliable that it became my modus operandi whenever I heard some public proclamation.

Politicians and bureaucrats have elevated double-speak to entirely new heights. Marketing companies rely on it to establish brand loyalty with jingoistic phrases that promise the opposite of what they deliver. The alternative health care industry is especially industrious in suggesting their nostrums will stave off everything from fallen arches to twitchy muscles, usually by some magical immune modulation, whatever that may be. And not a day goes by without a few ‘male enhancement products’ in my Email spam folder. It is a sad commentary that the computer’s filters are better at detecting junk than a sizable fraction of the population. The zenith of doublespeak is reached by those who write ballot initiatives. They are so good at obfuscating the situation that when you want something, you have to vote “NO”, but when you don’t want it, you usually have to place your thumbprint next to “YES”. The shameless use of double negatives.

Such behavior is clearly contrived but maybe excusable because it is carefully thought out, even if it is sneaky and deceptive. Much more distressing is the repetitious mantra that is never examined. A good example —and one that irks me more than most —is the “We have the best medical care in the world.” This is a favorite of politicians of all stripes, TV hosts, commentators, and sometimes even one’s friends. It illustrates the sad fact that less than 30% of Americans have passports, and even fewer have been abroad. All available statistics fail to support this assertion about our health. We score way down the list on many measures, beaten by some countries we disparage as third-world. Reciting such mantras may also be part of the Great Lie—say something often enough, and people will eventually believe it.

I know what you are thinking. Benjamin is not just a skeptic (Greek - ‘Skeptikos’ - to examine or to look at) - he is actually a cynic, an unpleasant term implying churlishness, distrust, and the belief that all is done in one’s own self-interest. There may be times when I am tinged by cynicism, but more often I believe that these public pronouncements are made out of a desire to manipulate or ignorance. The latter may be in the job description for those planning to run for national office and appears to be a mandatory requirement for TV commentators.

What provoked this skeptic’s rant? Something named a decade ago as the “Affordable Health Care Act”. The day it was named, and the four major culprits for the current medical mess stood shoulder to shoulder, agreeing to support this legislation —the hospital lobby, organized medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, and the health insurers. I recalled the prophetic words of my old history teacher. By his standards, it will be neither affordable nor provide much in the way of health care. It turned out to be better than nothing, but not by much. Such a lost opportunity to transform a broken system, rather than apply a complex band-aid.

Skepticism is a prerequisite for critical thinking. Without it, we all become rubes, susceptible to the propaganda of both government and industry.

I sometimes worry that I might transform into a cynic. A pity — I used to be a nice guy.