Events in recent years, and certainly in recent months, stress the need to re-emphasize the importance of these two things in our society: civility and critical thinking.
Most everyone will agree upon the former; I'm not as convinced that everyone would agree upon the latter. Civility and critical thinking are inextricably linked. Lack of civility originates from one dimensional points of view ("it's my way or the highway" or "This is what I want to believe and I don't want to hear about anything else").
True critical thought, however, examines things from multiple sides. . .and most importantly, asks multiple questions. Why did a person respond this way? What are the outside forces that contributed to this decision? Where did the information originate? When was this said? Why do we care about this? What should we care about? Critical thinking is knowing what questions must be asked and then having the willingness to ask those questions.
The second part of the equation is that we are willing to really learn the answers even if they depart from our favored line of thought. It is often true that people believe what they want to believe - and it is also true that it is very hard for most of us to depart from those beliefs even if the facts don't support them.
We must, however, be open to the facts (and really be committed to getting to the real facts and not an interpretation thereof). We must be willing to hear and understand the answers to the questions we ask (otherwise it is a waste of time). I can assure you that once we understand an issue more thoroughly, civility will ensue.
That is not to say that in some instances we won't be outraged, that we won't feel indignant, that there won't be anger. But, by having more information we are more prepared to intelligently present our case. The bonus? By understanding the issues from multiple sides and having the ability to negotiate the issue at multiple touch points, we are more likely to legitimately win the argument.
It is that lack of information that rushes us to a favored conclusion or that which we wish to believe. It is that lack of understanding that results in name-calling and rumor-mongering.
Information gained by asking the right questions allows us to be smarter. Understanding won by examining multiple sides of an issue will make us stronger. Together that will allow us to build a better society.
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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available on Amazon Kindle.
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