Source: Dee Chadwell
William Golding (of Lord of the Flies fame) wrote an essay titled “Thinking as a Hobby” in which he outlined what he saw as the three stages of human thought. The first stage, he pointed out, wasn’t really thinking at all, but rather emoting about whatever information (or disinformation) parades through a brain’s synapses. This level of “thought” takes no actual knowledge, uses logic sparingly, if at all, and produces nothing but anger, bitterness, and only an occasional tickle of amusement. The second stage of thinking is actual, rational thinking, but only goes so far as to list the problems, recognize the difficulties, to make the diagnosis. It is overwhelmingly negative — the sky is falling, the sky is falling!
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This is where most news commentary stops. Rarely do they dig deep into possible solutions and the defense of those proposed solutions. This level of thought requires a positive outlook, a strong sense of optimism, and the courage to follow through. It requires creativity, knowledge of history, science, logic, economics, and rhetoric. It requires self-discipline. On the other hand, the negative woe-is-me level is easy; it’s a testimony to the sinful, complaining nature of man.
