How Did We Arrive Here?

First things first. Unless we know how to think, it really doesn't matter what we think. A person's conclusion regarding any matter can be wrongly derived due to that individual's flawed thought process influenced by any number of faulty assumptions. This problem can be largely attributed to our educational institutions which have done an excellent job of dumbing down our educational system resulting in a dearth of graduates who actually possess critical thinking skills. This has resulted in a populace of citizens who have been taught what to think, instead of how to think.

But Wait, It Gets Worse

Instead of knowing what they should have already been taught in early grade school, even fundamental knowledge is absent and on display. They lack not only critical thinking skills but also the facts upon which one's critical thinking skills are founded.

Thus the majority of any given population believes with very little questioning what they are told, and a sizeable percentage remains ambivalent because, like the scarecrow, they just can't make up their minds.

In the following video, this topic of debate broadcasted nationally 65 years ago is still as relevant today as it was way back then.

"We've never been in a greater mess in our lives, as a nation."

Be Mindful of Your Heart

Yet notably, a person can have critical thinking skills but lack compassion and kindness. A person can be cognitively aware and yet be morally bankrupt. One's own heart can deceive not only oneself but others as well. Just because a person knows how to think, in and of itself, it doesn't mean that such a person is to be trusted. The history of humanity is replete with evil personages who knew how to think critically but possessed evil hearts. What's worse is that the masses followed them.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

Where Do We Go From Here?

Do we do as Dorothy and her companions did and just follow the yellow brick road? Of course, in the real world, things aren't that simple. Yet, I think only two things are required of us.

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16

In his instructions, Jesus described wisdom and innocence as the two things necessary to survive in this fallen world. The former characteristic pertains to our minds and the latter characteristic pertains to our hearts. I posit that more than ever, both of these qualities are requisite to navigating our way into the future. Unlike Dorothy and Toto, we're not going back home to Kansas and the way things were. Instead, our future direction will be dictated by the likes of Klaus Schwab and those of his ilk who proudly proclaim that the world's citizenry "will own nothing and be happy." Like the Wizard of Oz, Klaus Schwab hides behind his own curtain of deception, refusing to reveal who he really is and what his cloaked agenda entails for mankind. He is but one man and he and his cohorts are vastly outnumbered by the common man. As in past history, his power is limited by his ability to deceive and manipulate the masses. And as long as good people remain indifferent and do nothing, he and the elitists will succeed in their goals.

But like the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz, we must somehow summon the courage in our hearts to do what is right. There is no turning back. Proverbial wisdom instructs us in the direction our lives should take.

¹⁰ If you faint in the day of adversity,
   your strength is small.
¹¹ Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
   hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
¹² If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
   does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
   and will he not repay man according to his work?  Proverbs 24

Keeping in mind all of what I've written above, I invite you to assess the next few articles I'll be posting in order for you to determine what if anything, you need to do.