How I think

I have a strange way of thinking and formulating ideas. It can be thought of as a two-step process. First, there is immersion - a complete mental swim into everything about a topic I can get my hands and eyes on. Ideally, it is from all sides of the issue under consideration. This is undertaken in the sense of fairness even when reading ideas that are agonizingly irritating to my preformed opinions and completely against all I have come to hold to as my personal truths. I do this with somewhat less reluctance as I have grown older as I have come to understand what Will Rogers meant when he said, to paraphrase, "Not knowing something, ignorance, is not the problem. The problem is what we know that is just not true."

The immersion process can take me to some strange places and usually does. For example, the ideas I am currently chewing (mentally) on began as an exploration of libertarianism, which I have come to admire more and more for reasons I will address, hopefully, in a future discussion. From there, I went through the economic policies, contrasted so very dramatically in our time, by John Kenneth Galbraith’s socialism and Milton’s Friedman’s capitalism. (Ironically, both esteemed and celebrated authors passed away in 2006). From Galbraith versus Friedman, I discovered the Hoover Institute. And, there was the launching pad for so many ideas I still swim among.

After immersion, there comes the second step. I could call it "rumination" but that makes the process sound gastrointestinal. I could call it "fermentation" but that makes it sound like either a compost heap (which it might be in the eyes of many) or a way of brewing beer (which I assure you it is not). I will chose, therefore, to refer to it as "excogitation." It is a two dollar word that simple means "to think" or "to devise." Now this second process has no time limit. It can be as short as overnight or as long as the rest of my life. This process resides, primarily, in the subconscious. Again, there are those who would argue that all my thinking is subconscious (or unconscious). I will sometimes be aware of the process but not on any sort of regular basis. It is carried out just below the surface of my awareness.

It seems to be a web-like process where I bring totally unrelated bits and pieces of experiences, facts - as best as I can know anything as a "fact" - and whatever else might fit into something that seems to make sense. Facts, preconceptions, biases, prejudices and, when I can spare it or muster it up, logic all enter into the process. All in their various measure depending on, I suspect, how emotionally I am invested, personally, in the subject under evaluation. If I am emotionally neutral on the topic and merely seeking understanding, I suspect facts and logic will dominate the process. If, on the hand, the issue has an individual investment for me, it becomes more of a battle between bias and prejudice versus facts and logic. It must be quite a battle at times. I am grateful that the battlefield exists in the subconscious/unconscious realm.

When the wheels stop creaking and the final product bubbles to the top of my personal, cerebral quagmire, it then is part of "what I know." And, with due respect to Will Rogers, it is usually what I know to be true. My personal truth. That is not to suggest that my truth will never change. The immersion and excogitation goes on.

I describe this because the conveyor belt of ideas has worked overtime in the past few weeks and I find that I have much to discuss. I will be posting some new material over the next few weeks that I hope will be worth the reading. Most of the ideas center on societal problems such as the continued racial problems in America and what lies at their center. I will also pepper in some general observations on "we, the people" and how we are still struggling over our national identity, now four centuries after Jamestown. I hope you will find them to be of some use as we stumble ahead toward a very uncertain future.