The Moderate Voice sometimes runs Guest Voice columns by readers or writers. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect by the opinion of TMV or its cobloggers.
“Oh Please, Mr. TV… Tell Me What to Think”
By Matt Pearl
A few posts ago, I talked about the differences between Fox News’ and CNN’s prime time lineups, namely that Fox’s was full of opinion shows and CNN’s was full of investigative news magazines. I was thinking that this was just a difference in what liberals and conservatives tend to want to watch, but recently, a conversation that I had about education with one of my friends got me thinking about a different possible cause…
This completely zeros in on my problem with the education system in this country.
That problem is, simply, that we are not teaching our kids how to think.
Before I went to college, I had very little knowledge of logic or critical thinking… and I think that that is a problem. I didn’t touch a logic textbook until my first semester of college. I wasn’t able to effectively form or diagram arguments, and I didn’t grasp the concept of what a fallacy actually was. The result, however, was that my opinions were rough and sophomoric, my papers didn’t quite work, and I wasn’t that quick on my feet when it came to thinking or arguing.
Now, two years and three Philosophy courses later, I feel that I am much better at those very things. Now, something that is even better, in my opinion, I don’t trust it when people try to press their opinions on to me. I realize that the factual basis of premises is only part of a well-constructed argument, and I realize that people can use truth to lie.
What is my point? Not everyone goes, or should go, to college, but everyone should know how to think critically of what they hear.
The fact that we don’t receive that training in primary or secondary schooling is a travesty. I’m not advocating teaching complex, symbolic logic to fifth graders… Every high school graduate should know how to correctly construct and diagram an argument; every 9th grader should know what an /ad hominem/ attack or an argument from ignorance is and why they shouldn’t be making them. It is imperative that we teach students how to think critically.
However, not everyone wants to teach students these things. Just like with pin heads who don’t want to teach their children evolution, some parents are so worried of actually having to be parents that they don’t want their children to question what they do or why they do it. Wondering why is one thing that parents don’t want their children to do, because it might mean that they don’t know the answer. Some people don’t want their children to wonder why they go to church or why God is all powerful… Parents can’t answer those questions, and they are afraid that ignorance will be perceived as weakness or impiety, and we can’t have weak, impious parents…
So, that is one possible explanation for Fox having all opinion shows on during their prime time slots. We have an entire legion of buffoons who don’t know how to think for themselves. They need the television to tell them their opinions, to tell them what is right and what is wrong. These people can’t make their own opinions because they lack the tools that are necessary: rational, critical thought.
Matt Pearl, is a Economics and Political Science student at the University of Georgia… He has written several Guest Voice columns.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.