Two Ways of Thinking

[Mole]

There are two ways of thinking.

We have been thinking the first way for 200,000 years and we have been thinking the second way for only 100 years, and that only in privileged parts of the world, particularly the West.

The first way of thinking is intuitive and the second is counter-intuitive.

The first has given us everything from maternal love and religion to territorial empires.

The second has given us plenty; it has given us political freedom; and it has given us science.

The first way of thinking is based on the spoken word and the second is based on literacy.

The first is intuitive and the second is counter-intuitive.

MBTI is firmly based in the first way of thinking.

MBTI is intuitive, MBTI is natural.

You are free from compulsion - you are not compelled by State Law to go to a special institution with specially trained staff, for 10 years, to learn MBTI - as you are with literacy.

In fact you can pick it up naturally then share it with your friends.

MBTI comes out of our infancy just like mother love.

But a big change is upon us - we are moving out of our second way of thinking and back to the past - we are moving from literacy back to the spoken word. And we are doing this via the electronic media.

The electronic media reinforces MBTI - just like here - it sets it like reinforced concrete.

The first way of thinking has won.

 

[Mole]

The first way of thinking has won.

Of course I knew this the moment I cast eyes on television. I knew at that moment there was no need to be literate to watch and understand television - I knew there was no need to learn to read and write anymore.

My aversion to television was instinctual - my hatred of television was visceral.

So I have never had one in my house - I have never owned a television - I fantasise about smashing televisions with a small hammer.

And as I walk in the cool night air, I see the evil eye blinking bluely in each lounge room.

 

[spirilis]

You make a good point here. Advanced discipline, is what I think when I consider the 2nd way of thinking.

 

[murkrow]

So you support the second way?

 

[SolitaryWalker]

There are two ways of thinking.

We have been thinking the first way for 200,000 years and we have been thinking the second way for only 100 years, and that only in privileged parts of the world, particularly the West.

The first way of thinking is intuitive and the second is counter-intuitive.

The first has given us everything from maternal love and religion to territorial empires.

The second has given us plenty; it has given us political freedom; and it has given us science.

The first way of thinking is based on the spoken word and the second is based on literacy.

The first is intuitive and the second is counter-intuitive.

MBTI is firmly based in the first way of thinking.

MBTI is intuitive, MBTI is natural.

You are free from compulsion - you are not compelled by State Law to go to a special institution with specially trained staff, for 10 years, to learn MBTI - as you are with literacy.

In fact you can pick it up naturally then share it with your friends.

MBTI comes out of our infancy just like mother love.

But a big change is upon us - we are moving out of our second way of thinking and back to the past - we are moving from literacy back to the spoken word. And we are doing this via the electronic media.

The electronic media reinforces MBTI - just like here - it sets it like reinforced concrete.

The first way of thinking has won.

MBTI may be intuitive, yet Jungian typology is a very carefully organized system. It requires much careful thought to understand it properly. Failure to understand it (MBTI is a result of this, a distortion of Jungian typology) shows how much we rely on intuitive thinking, or mere appeasement of intellectual impulse than on careful analysis.

 

[Gabe]

if you think about it "Intuitive" is just one of those words.

yeah. Really, this thread is a false distinction. Niether "intuitive" or counter-intuitive are good excuses or accusations for a quality of something.

If something is intuitive to someone, it matches thier perception.

Psychological types was intuitive to Jung, as he came up with the whole thing with his heroic introverted intuition.

And Bluewing's idiotic crap is intuitive to him.

 

[substitute]

I used to feel the same way you do about TV, but since then my views on mass literacy being the most fantastical and indespensible thing ever have changed. And I also don't see why science can only come through counter-intuitive thinking... plus an awful lot of very counter-intuitive realizations of great wisdom have come through religious thinking (see Hinduism for example).

Could you clarify for us a bit more, how you came to the statements you made in the OP?

 

[unsung truth]

counter intuitive thinking isn't 100 years old... F=ma?
and who the hell is going to be making TVs if you say that literacy is dead?

Now if you are talking about literacy for the masses we have public education and anyways you still need a certain level of literacy in order to properly function in society.

I just don't see literacy as dying anytime soon

 

[GZA]

Is it just me or does Victor need a blog?

 

[Jack Flak]

That's up to Victor, but his posts make my brain feel good, even though I don't know what he's getting at half the time.

 

[locke]

I just don't see literacy as dying anytime soon.

I think it's something worth thinking about.

 

[Mole]

The Rennaisance

So you support the second way?

Yes, Murkrow, I support the second way. Why wouldn't I? I have been inducted over many years into the world of literacy.

But mate, look around you. The author is dead.

You and I are merely having a conversation - neither of us is an auteur.

Our prized individuality is evaporating in the Noosphere - we are becoming one tribe that shares its one feeling at the same time over the electronic media.

Mate, we are entering the New Dark Ages.

In the old Dark Ages the literate monks were forced to retire to their fortress monasteries and spent their time in the Scriptorium copying by hand the Ancient Greek Bible and by necessity, the Ancient Greek Philosophers.

And it was the combination of the Ancient Greek Bible and the Ancient Greek Philosophers that gave is the Rennaisance.

So the literate retire in the face of the internet, preparing for and awaiting the next Rennaisance.

What fun we shall have.

 

[Mole]

That's up to Victor, but his posts make my brain feel good, even though I don't know what he's getting at half the time.

I don't know either mate. But I take after the patron saint of the internet, Marshall McLuhan, who said his work was a series of probes rather than a finished product.

In fact the meaning of my communication is your response.

 

[Jack Flak]

Nothin' wrong with that.

 

[Mole]

Content and Nested Environments

I just don't see literacy as dying anytime soon

The way to look at it is this -

1. All environments are invisible - after all fish didn't discover water.

2. The content of this environment is the previous environment - in the same way theatre is the content of the new environment of television.

- so environments are stacked inside one another like Russian dolls
- and where each environment is the content of the next environment.

So you are quite right, literacy is not dying - rather it has been relegated to content - literacy is now the content of our new environment, the Noosphere.

Just look right in front of you now - I am writing in the Noosphere.

My writing is the content of the Noosphere.

And the Noosphere is our new environment.

 

[entropie]

you would make a brilliant quantum theorist

 

[Blackmail!]

you would make a brilliant quantum theorist

That's only common neo-catholic ramblings, you know...

 

[kyuuei]

Okay, I'm a bit more simple minded about everything.. but I do believe literacy will never die. As far as I can see, reading and writing still has plenty of people who prefer it, in all sorts of mediums. It's true that technology has dumbed down some of the ways people do things and I see the decline in education with the public schools through my youngest one, forcing me to step in more and more to prepare her for the real world outside of school.. but in the end, its our responsibility to ensure literacy is valid, and that television has it's place, but it's not in the center of the room. I use the television all the time to listen to what goes on in the world, in my area, and to entertain. It's never stopped me from turning it off and listening to new music, reading a new book from my favorite author, or maintaining my necessary tasks in life. I take that responsibility into my own hands to ensure there's a balance in all of it, so I believe it won't be such a crisis if that is the way everyone handles it. I'm sure the T.V. wouldn't harm your home.. mayhap you're just a bit scared of the hold you've seen it have on other people.

 

[01011010]

My aversion to television was instinctual - my hatred of television was visceral.

Same. I abhor television.

 

[Mole]

That's only common neo-catholic ramblings, you know...

Of course you are quite right, you know...