| Very recently, we had an email from a Man, who/m has never attended the Critical Thinking Tutorials. Although he had not attended the Tutorials he was criticizing (not critiquing), what we were doing ... He was coming from the perspective that he had for years studied Eastern and Western Philosophy, in an academic context, and maintained that we should not be using/quoting Socrates and/or Descartes, and that the two were not analogous in any way, to what we were doing, so we had it (Critical Thinking) all wrong. He got quite irate when we asked, if he had attended the Tutorials?; stating "that had nothing to do with anything". Equally, he was not impressed when we pointed out, we had assisted him in more than one or two letters to a debt collector, who had subsequently disappeared from his life. He probably felt uncomfortable that we were encroaching into the area of "his perceived expertise". The fact that you could possibly use and turn Philosophical Thought Processes, into something practicable and useful, probably annoyed the hell out of him, because he didn't think of it himself, or maybe he did, but couldn't figure out how to use it. Perhaps he was unhappy that we were able to teach or show People how to Read, Write and Think Critically in such a short period of time, when he had spent many-many years studying, and yet got nothing practical out of all his years of study? The point here is; not to have a go at this fella. The point is this: All the academics in the world are not worth a jot to any of us, unless we know how to convert them into practical use, or we figure out how to use them in a critical way or manner. Most People DO NOT WANT to figure out how to solve a/the problems they are faced with, and on the contrary, most People prefer to stay in the deep water, albeit with or without a flotation device, but will not participate in their own a possible permanent rescue, by grabbing hold of the life-line, and putting in the work to pull themselves a-shore. Some People will or may argue that the and/or a FEAR (of sorts) renders them helpless, and thus prevents them from grabbing hold of the life-line. But in our experience, it is more likely that they do not, or are not prepared to put the work in. We have another word for this … it is called LAZY. Ok we know, this all sounds and/or reads aggressively, but we have written about this topic before, and those of you that have gotten to know the People at The CLS, already know, that we don't pull our punches. You can turn "the FEAR" thing around, and use it to your benefit, if you know how. F.E.A.R. to us stands for "False Education Appearing Real", and this False Education (Information) you have been fed, is designed to stymie your thinking. To stop you from thinking, and then get you to react to a given situation. The old, "Problem, Reaction, Solution" scenario kicks in. Create a "Problem", wait for the/a "Reaction", then provide a pre-planned or pre-determined "Solution". This is the very simplistic way that ALL incumbents/attackers from "the State", "Revenue Commissioners", "County/City Councils", "Banks/Financial Institutions", "Solicitors/Barristers", "Debt Collectors" and "the Judiciary" etc. operate. Knowing this, the way they operate is half the battle. The next part is learning how to NOT REACT in the way they expect. Rather than REACTING, you can learn and/or be guided into being APPROPRIATELY RESPONSIVE, but at the same time without being PASSIVE, and/or being seen as just another easy target for them. All of this takes an amount of work of course. The amount of work for each of us varies. Some People are prepared to put that work in, but most are not, as they would rather, keep taking their chances in deep water (each to their own of course). The rudiments behind Critical Reading, Writing and Thinking are just that, rudiments, and do not take long to grasp, but may take a lifetime to master.
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