Can we teach how to think and problem solve our way out of a total collapse?
I'm curious why some people are facing it all head on, reading the news and studies and watching the clips about Covid, climate and so many conflicts. I wonder if I'm one of the few who look because I was raised by much older parents who were born in the 20s and had lived during the depression and WWII and had first-hand information and attitudes to share about what to do during emergencies. Many people are too far removed from imminent life-threatening survival needs.
I wrote more about that last July, referring to so many as part of "undarkened" generations without the skills and know-how to survive a collective tragedy, and how my own children are part of it because they were one generation removed from my parents, getting all their stories second hand and watered down while being surrounded by so many things that distract their mind, and my own sheltering of them keeping them from considering the possibility of it all being lost!
And I wonder if it's more or less useful to look at it all! Ignorance sounds pretty blissful right about now. They might end up struggling more later, but we'll be there to help as much as we can. That appears to be our lot in life, of those who look.
Antiviral Marketing wrote a thread about why some look and others look away (in full - ellipses were in the original):
"So I had some interactions lately which convinced me that the "average" or "normal" person is beyond their stress limit right now, and their brains are shutting down. They are literally tuning out Scary Information just to try to survive another day. Which is weird because I log on to this hellsite daily to mainline doom. I do have my limits. I do get depressed. I have to be careful not to read too much doom. But those limits seem way, way higher than average. And I don't know why. You can say "neurodivergence", but the problem is that that's not really an explanation. It's just a label for the phenomenon. And when I introspect, looking for coping mechanisms that I could identify and share... I can't find any. I have absolutely no idea why I'm comfortable reading daily horrifying scientific discoveries, and (most) other people aren't.
You probably remember the infamous marshmallow experiment. Well it turns out that the kids who resist eating the marshmallow have better coping strategies to resist temptation. And you can teach those strategies to "poor performers" who then learn to resist temptation. Is there some hidden coping mechanism that we are using to educate ourselves without overloading? I don't know. What I do know is that when some people hear the word "Covid," they fly into a rage. Which honestly looks like PTSD. But when I think PTSD, I think of a clearly traumatic event, or CPTSD consisting of multiple, "small-T" traumatic events. The pandemic doesn't really feel like either of those, though. I know a lot of people have had traumatic experiences over the past four years. I'm not talking about those cases. I'm talking about the person who basically leads a life of middle class privilege, and has now returned to "normal", and has a newly acquired HEPAphobia. People with no discernible trauma are displaying bizarre behaviors. So there has got to be some trauma there. But like... is it the trauma of zoom calls? The trauma of outdoor gatherings? Standing in line for five minutes before entering the grocery store?
I have this hunch that the "average" person lacks any coping strategy to deal with real adversity. So when a literal plague comes along their brain shuts down because, up until this point, most everything they have accomplished was sort of handed to them. A lot of people earn money by going to work and the tasks are... handed to them. And they got that job by getting a degree or whatever, which is a life strategy that was... handed to them. Just about everything adults do is copied from other adults. Zero creativity is required. So it's not entirely surprising that when a novel adversity appears, people have no idea what the fuck to do. So what happens when you say to a person with underdeveloped creative ability, "figure out how to clean all the air you breathe forever or you're gonna end up disabled"? I can see how that would be traumatic.
It's like if you had to resist eating the marshmallow or else die, a lot of people would just fail, their ancient emotional system defeated by a sugary treat. If all your meals were strictly controlled by someone else up until that point, you're screwed. You can kinda see how people would land on one of: 1. "Marshmallows won't kill me" 2. Marshmallows inducing absolute rage. Whenever I'm faced with some doom, I actually enjoy the creative process of trying to solve it. Trying to reduce respirator total inward leakage is fun (and essential). Tons of problems are solvable. Problems aren't really problems, for the most part. The air is poison? No problem, I'll just wear this two dollar respirator everywhere. Respirator fatigue? No problem, I'll just find more comfortable ones, stagger wear time, do more video calls, etc.
🚨 WHAT IF YOU CAN'T DO THAT? 🚨
What if the creative problem solving module in your brain is simply not there? Or maybe it's switched off. For whatever reason. Now you're just a person in deep, deep trouble. With no plan. There is a type of therapy. It's called: problem-solving therapy. Can you guess what the therapist does? 😂 Okay now to something more profound: why should therapy like this exist? Why would it be therapeutic for the therapist to wink-wink-nudge-nudge tell you what to do?!!?!!? The thinking is that a person in mental health crisis has compromised problem solving ability, and benefits from assistance (which seems reasonable). But I think a key missing piece is that the average person is usually just told what to do. Well what if you took a stressed AF person and put them into problem-solving therapy? Now you've got a person to whom you suggest HEPA purifiers, which they respond to with rage.
Can't do problem solving without some degree of emotional regulation. So I think there has got to be some way of assisting with the emotional regulation, but honestly I have no idea what it is. And it seems like that is a precursor to problem solving, which again, they cannot do unassisted (in theory). What is it that people like us do to regulate emotions in the period before a solution manifests? The uncomfortable period when you don't know if you can solve it.
We can kind of simulate what it's like to experience this terror: Imagine you're an Extreme Bruncher, and I suggest that you should wear a respirator for your safety. Here's what I think a person without creative problem solving ability would think: "Will it hurt?" "How can I wear this all day?" "Won't it leak too much anyway?" "What about microplastics?" "What if my friends make fun of me?" "What if my boss fires me?" "Won't it cost too much?" "Isn't it too good to be true?" "If it actually worked, wouldn't public health tell me to do it?" "What if I get assaulted and blinded like that guy?" "What if I get refused service?" "Doesn't it build up CO2? Isn't that dangerous?""Where do I buy it?" "How do I know it's authentic?" "Which respirator is the best one?" "How do I know it fits?" "How can I trust you?" "Why doesn't my doctor wear one?" "Isn't this bad for the environment?" "What do I do if I run out?" "What do I do if the strap breaks?" "Earloops or headbands?" "Porta-whatsacount?" "Can't I just social distance instead?" "If air goes through the holes, how do the holes filter air?" "What are the long term risks of wearing this?" "Isn't it useless if my partner won't wear one?" "How do I get my kids to wear one?"
All of that. As one, huge emotion.
None of those problems bother me, personally. I know the answers, but more importantly, I trust that I can find the answers. I know I can solve problems. So I'm free to sketch solutions. And you can see how a person could quickly be overwhelmed by the perceived immensity of the task of deciding to wear a respirator in public. And how we could laugh at them because, "it's obvious and you're just selfish." Maybe what we need to be teaching is not so much respiratoring (but yes, absolutely that). Maybe it's the skill of staring at those one thousand doubts and not shrinking away from the task at hand. I just don't know what it is."
Having taught for decades, I came to the conclusion at one point that critical thinking is less a skill and more of a talent. It's a very unpopular conclusion that comes with the implication that some people can't think for themselves. About a decade ago, people glommed on to Ken Robinson's video that suggests that people can't think because the school system stopped them from thinking by telling them what to think, conflating in many minds the providing of facts and data with forcing opinions on our young charges. But consider this: some people can play piano beautifully, but can't create music. When it comes to music, we're all pretty accepting that there are limitations to our own creativity. We can train people to read sheet music, and we can show people how to follow basic compositional formats, but we can't really train people to write music if it's not in them, if they can't hear it. Not everyone can do all the things, and that's a good thing as it fosters interdependence within larger society. I seek out music from others because I can't create it myself.
People don't want to think of themselves as not being able to form complex and clearly-reasoned ideas, yet thinking is a strikingly creative act, as AM suggests above. Lot of people can parrot other people's words but get irate if asked for their reasoning because it's like asking them to write a concerto right in front of you. They can't do it; they know they can't do it, and they're pissed that you reminded them of that reality.
If critical thinking is something we don't all have the capacity for, then that jibes with complaints made by Plato and Aristotle and so many other ancient philosophers about the "vulgar" people who never think for themselves. If we do all have the potential and have lost it along the way, then what's happening now that also happened way back then that removes the impetus from so many people? If anything, then, like now, we have leaders who tell us the best course of action, and we trust them. Most people trust them. The rest are rabble-rousers and gadflies that are often not vindicated until long after they've passed, and are often killed for their efforts, like Socrates, or imprisoned in an insane asylum, like Ivan Semmelweis, or exiled like so many philosophers were over centuries. If nobody leads the way and offers a suitable way forward, then I'm not convinced everyone will suddenly start thinking for themselves -- I think it more likely that a leader will always emerge, and the rest will gladly or reluctantly follow. We just happen to have some of the absolute worst leaders in power right now, bought off or hoping to make some cash as they pilfer the coffers of civilization while we all get sicker and weaker and unable to retaliate. Like always, since recorded history, they have far too much power and hubris to listen to the voices that actually make sense.
I believe that when faced with a problem, in that "uncomfortable period when you don't know if you can solve it" some people will sit and try to sort it out, but many others - most others - will turn to friends and family and someone who can solve the problem for them. The big issue now for thinkers is sorting out how to cope during a collapse while the über-wealthy build their bunkers. It's like finding out we have cancer, all of us, at once, and knowing that far too soon things will start to get very difficult for us. But at some point, there won't be anyone left to take care of us or anyone there after we gone to look at all the pretty things we made during the course of it all. There won't be memories of us or stories about our shenanigans to be past down through generations. There won't be generations propagating from us plebs.
We need to learn to sit with grief.
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