The Sage Observer

Opinions or Facts—How We Think

In his book, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, Dr. Daniel Kahneman tells us that we, people, have two modes of thinking. The first and most often used mode is “thinking fast”. It is a fight or flight mode. It serves to protect us from our enemies. It is reflexive in its nature. When we think; when we are confronted with thought, a question, an issue, or involved in a discussion, we go to this mode almost automatically. Our mind immediately consults our mental database, our internal store of knowledge, experience, impressions, opinions and prejudices accumulated over the span of our lives.

The second and least used mode is “thinking slow” This is the mode wherein we reason; we study; we contemplate; we calculate; and, here too, we build our store of knowledge. This mode is least used because we have an inborn tendency to resist using it, resorting first to our “defensive mode” of “thinking fast”. Both of these modes lead to inputs to our mental database. In conjunction with what I have said, I have a saying, “Everybody, with very few exceptions, is mentally lazy. Some are just more so than others”. Only one example among many others is that of those who don’t want to read. There are very many of us who refuse to read books at all, and many who do read will read only fiction, and then, only the kind where they don’t have to think—not good for themselves and not good for the nation.

With the foregoing in mind, let us add some “givens” to the equation. An important fact we must keep in mind is that our learning is greatest at birth. I have read but long since forgotten the statistics; but, if I remember correctly, learning goes downhill from there—it slows as we mature. Also, reason, our ability to calculate the cause and effect of our actions, doesn't mature until around the age of twenty-four—more or less (possibly one of the reasons we are so successful in gaining recruits into our military services). This is a real problem for young people because, in all honesty, this is the time in their lives when they form opinions and prejudices—they think they know it all. And yet, they are called upon to make career and lifetime decisions, many of which can never be corrected, based on not much more than fantasy, and, at the very best, pure wishful thinking.

In light of what I have said, I want to discuss the subject of “opinion(s)” in conjunction with that of “prejudices”. Everybody has opinions, but few have the facts (Implied from the discussion above). As one person has said, “One is entitled to their opinions but they are not entitled to their facts”. What is an opinion? Wikipedia tells us that, “In general, an opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement about matters commonly considered to be subjective, i.e. based on that which is less than absolutely certain, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of the facts. What distinguishes fact from opinion is that facts are verifiable, i.e. can be objectively proven to have occurred”.

Where am I going with this? I’ll tell you. If you didn’t see something with your own eyes (and you can’t always believe even them), or you haven’t actually verified it through reliable unimpeachable witnesses, and/or sources, if that something isn’t recorded or documented, you don’t know it for a fact. And, also, if you don’t know it for a fact or know the relevant facts, those related to, affected by, or contributing to them, you can’t entertain an informed opinion regarding the matter, i.e. the trading of the four prisoners from Guantanamo as just one example. At that point, it is only your opinion. And, opinions are: I think so, I would like to think so, or, maybe, I hope so—all of which may very well be and probably are influenced by your prejudices (mine too—I’m no different).

And what are prejudices? Again, Wikipedia tells us. “Prejudice is prejudgment, or forming an opinion before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case. The word is often used to refer to preconceived, usually unfavorable, judgments toward people or a person because of gender, political opinion, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race/ethnicity, language, nationality or other personal characteristics. In this case, it refers to a positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their perceived group membership. Prejudice can also refer to unfounded beliefs and may include “any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence”. Gordon Allport defined prejudice as a “feeling, favorable or unfavorable, toward a person or thing, prior to, or not based on, actual experience”.

All of these, opinions and prejudices, are built into your individual and personal data base, from which you draw daily in order to make good and bad decisions. I go into all of this because it seems to me, in “my opinion”, in these perilous times; and they are perilous, internationally and domestically, socially, economically, and politically. I have added socially to the list because, additionally, I think we are experiencing in our society a breakdown in values, in the home, in the family, and in the marketplace. Our God has been replaced by Narcissism and our New King, The Corporatocracy and the Power Elite. But don’t tell our youth. They have it all figured out (just as I once did). We know/knew everything. We’re still operating in the First Mode, taking advantage of the Second Mode only when we must.

Ronald Miller

mtss86@comcast.net