With my previous two postings I began to briefly explore a response to this question: ‘What’s the Point?’ My first response focused on what I call ‘The Ideal.’ My second response focused on what I call ‘The Real.’ This morning, gentle reader, I will begin to focus on my third response and I call this ‘The Real+’ [by the by, I have a sense that it will take two postings in order for me to even briefly offer a third response with some ‘good flesh’].
My third response begins with the great Spanish painter, Goya. One of his most powerful etchings is the one he titled: ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.’ Here is an image of his etching:
Goya believed that many follies of humankind resulted from the ‘sleep of reason.’ How much time do we spend ‘asleep’ – choosing not to be awake, aware, intentional and purposeful? How much time do we spend ruminating about the past or anticipating-fantasizing about the future? How much time do we avoid living in the ‘now’ while, paradoxically, striving to live in the ‘know’?
How many times do we simply accept what another tells us because what he or she tells us is what we want to hear? How many times do we believe what an ‘authority’ tells us simply because we have invested that person with authority?
We also know that convictions are infectious, and that we human beings can convince one another of almost anything. Pause for a moment and consider how many ‘good people’ in Germany ‘bought’ what their leader was ‘selling’. How many of us today, in our country are on a ‘blind buying spree’ rather than using our ‘reason’ to help us think critically and discern wisely?
How many of us refuse to use our ‘reason’ rather than simply believe that our ways, our beliefs, our religion, our politics are better than theirs?
How many of us believe that our God Given Rights trump (the pun is intended) the others?
How many of us believe that our interests permit us – require us – to defensively or pre-emptively strike first without confirmed evidence (think: weapons of mass destruction – which did not exist and think: undermining the FBI without confirmed evidence).
Consider that in the end it is ideas without ‘reason’ that permits us to guilt-free ‘kill’ the other(s). Without ‘reason’ monsters are allowed to run amok and tear at the very fabric of our life – of our society
It is because of ideas about what the others are like, or who we are, or what our self-interests or rights require, that we go to war, or oppress others with a clear conscience, or acquiesce in our own oppression by others.
When these beliefs permeate our culture as they are today, when the sleep of reason permeates all aspects of our culture, some ask: ‘What’s the antidote?’
The antidote involves choosing to be awake, aware, intentional and purposeful AND to develop and employ two disciplines: Critical Thinking and Reflection [by the by, Critical Thinking is not ‘criticism’ as it is usually practiced in our culture by most of us].
Stay tuned. . .
Searcher-Seeker 
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