Mi'sen

When an individual abandons critical thinking, some of the worst human traits take over: diligent practice is replaced by a sort of mentalism supported by dogma, and you know how the rest goes. 4

It's clear to anyone that critical thinking is by no means sufficient for human fulfilment, well being, growth, and all that good stuff. 5

However when people actively reject cynicism & analysis - which isn't all that uncommon in 'spiritual' types - forces hidden to them shape their worldview & behaviour, which necessarily remain unseen until such a time that they're willing to think and look at their world. 6

It should be clear that critical thinking is one of many factors: one can be very very smart and still be an empty vessel being ridden around by an ideological parasite, a mimetic puppet master, so to speak. 7

Whilst very limited, thinking/analysis is necessary to the degree that we can see some of the psycho-social forces at play, some of the more visible tensions pulling our being into & out of cohesion in relationship to the human-interaction spheres which we interpenetrate with. 8

I've been going through this thing where I've seemingly lost access to a chunk of cognitive capacity: to think and communicate clearly. I tweeted about this some time ago. This sucks, but that's life. I'm lucky in many other ways. 9

What I've found interesting is that it takes very little by way of analysis or intelligence in order to see - in oneself and others - how quickly even very smart people get pulled into and out of shape by emotional attachment to their beliefs and models of the world. 10

A Very Smart Person could analyse this at a high level and get very specific, communicating complex ideas simply and cogently - a powerful skill - but the practitioner doesn't need this capacity quite so much. 11