Coming back as a bimbo

Living successfully requires effective thinking. We need to solve practical problems every day and that means applying our intelligence as well as the social and psychological insights and intuitions we have developed over time.

But what about value and belief systems (i.e. religions, ideologies, etc.)? Do we need to think about them or is it better just to trust our intuitions and go with what feels right or with what works for us?

I raise this issue because, though I have a ready answer, I sometimes suspect that there is a problem with it.

My answer is that our value and belief systems - since they drive our entire lives - are crucially important and that therefore they should be subject to scrutiny and discussion so that they might be purged of illusions and prejudices and errors of all kinds (as far as possible at any rate). But, interestingly, most people don't really want to go down this path.

Take bloggers and their readers. In general terms it is clear that what people want is 1)practical and special interest information; 2)news and gossip; and 3)opinion pieces on contentious issues.

With respect to the third category, it is clear that bloggers (like talk-radio hosts) who have strong and clear opinions on contentious issues are favored over those who take a more nuanced and analytical approach.

Successful communication often creates a sense of belonging, a sense of solidarity with others, as well as enhanced confidence, and so can be life- and action-enhancing.

Analysis and questioning tend to work in the opposite direction, undermining confidence and inhibiting action. This is good if the action inhibited is bad (like racially-inspired violence), but what if self-questioning just inhibits action per se? It can be self-defeating.

Consider, for example, what this analytical and self-questioning blogger is now doing. He is not only not out in the fresh air doing good or having fun - he is questioning his questioning!

A well-known female intellectual, fed up with the grave solemnity and sheer ponderousness of the world of discourse of which she was a part, once said that if she was going to be reincarnated she would like to come back as a bimbo.