High Cognitive Minds

If any of my readers think they detect a strong streak of cynicism in my posts, they're right. I suffer from a sort of intellectual schizophrenia in which despair, cynicism, and apathy battle with hope and the determination to make a difference, however small, before I exit this life. I'm well aware that the kind of writing I do and the subjects I cover will appeal to a minute fraction of all those who stumble across this blog. So why do I write?

I don't have a great deal of faith in the future of humanity. I do have a strong belief that the people best able to deal with the realities and complexities of modern life, and help ameliorate some of the worst problems, will be found among the most intelligent and imaginative among us. But the obstacles to using one's mind as it should be used are many, and the most significant one is the near-total lack of the necessary education. Nobody taught me the many subjects with which I've developed a reasonable speaking acquaintance, or the one in which I consider myself fairly expert. Nobody taught me logic, the use of scientific thinking, the need for objectivity and impartiality, or respect for facts and rationality. I learned all of these on my own, over many years, with a lot of trial and error and backtracking from dead ends. And the questions never leave my mind: why was I forced to spend so much time learning for myself what should have been part of my formal education? Why should so much of my life have been taken up in the quest for the knowledge I needed that actually putting it to use comes at the very end of my life, when enthusiasm is hard to come by, and the necessary energy is so often insufficient?

So I write just in case I can strike a spark in one or two minds. Maybe because of something they read here a very few will be inspired to fill the gaps in their education and self-knowledge, and find in themselves the ability to do something really worthwhile—before they're too old and tired. The subtitle of Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World, one of my favorite books, is "Science as a Candle in the Dark." There are fewer candles every year, and we are left mostly with sputtering matches constantly in danger of going out forever. I have very little faith in the usefulness of any effort, but I'll probably keep striking matches until there aren't any more to strike.