David Coveney

About the Campaign for Thinking

This is where my campaign to encourage people to Use Their Frickin’ Brains is starting.  It’s a personal crusade, but now that 2008 has come to an end I’ve come to the conclusion that far too many people are choosing to abrogate their personal responsibilities.  Possibly because the world is too confusing and complex for them, but more likely because they’re just too damn lazy to actually think for a while.

The Inspiration

Where on Earth do I start?  But the item that got me the most, recently, was a story about think-tanks encouraging the use of speed limiting devices in cars.  I’m not going to go into detail about it all, as that’s for a post in this section, but it’s a completely bat-shit insane idea.  I can see the logic behind it, but what we have here are people who have looked at the small picture and either deliberately or inadvertantly missed the big picture.  And I see it All. The. Time.

It’s driving me insane.  If I see one more group of parents protesting against Wi-Fi being installed in the schools of their mobile phone toting progeny I’ll be tempted to just mow them down with my Bluetooth device.  Clearly, for their safety, I need to find a release.  And this is it.

The Agenda

I can’t possibly hope to pin-point every possible case of not thinking.  I mean, that would need all the thinking people to devote their entire lives to the job.  No, I’m going to highlight items and people in the media and political spheres who are cheerfully spreading or pormoting misinformation, rumour and displaying the primary symptoms of non-thinking.

Basically, I’m going to target the following:

  • People who protest
  • Over-zealous non-thinkers who adopt any idea like it’s a religion
  • Religion
  • Authoritarians
  • Libertarians
  • Jacqui Smith
  • Actually, any sod who can’t be bothered to think
  • Even if it was just a momentary slip

Obviously it’s all going to depend on the time I have available, but hey, I need the release.

Some articles are going to be carefully thought out, illustrated and cited.  Others will be the incoherent ramblings of a guy who should probably think more too.  If you don’t like what I say, tell me in the comments sections after each post.

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