OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to 'COLUMN: It's time to add reasoning as the fourth r,' published Oct. 15.
I just read the article by Peter Bursztyn and just wanted to reach out to him to say thank you.
Reasoning and critical thinking is something that seems lost in our so called modern society. One only has to spend five minutes reading the comment section of any CBC online article to realize that reasoning and critical thinking is no longer in the public domain.
My question to Peter is: How do we take this critical message and amplify it to rise above the partisan political rhetoric coming from all three mainstream political parties?
Our society now seems caught up in a race to the bottom and no government voice seems the least bit interested in a solution.
This solution, which Peter so eloquently captured in his article, needs to be repeated over and over before it is too late.
"Of all serious threats to our society, disinformation stands head and shoulders above the others. Our system of education must give our citizens the ability to protect themselves – the ability to recognize when they are asked to believe the impossible. Reasoning is the additional tool our children need."
Disinformation is the greatest single threat to our democracy and the average citizen, such as myself, is at a loss as to how to effectively fight against it.
Instead of fighting against it, our politicians are actively engaged in spreading it. This is a serious threat.
But we as a society have lost the ability to identify and take action to address serious threats. In this digital media landscape, nothing is given the time to "stick."
News for today's generation is on a "spin cycle." No wonder they are overwhelmed and the sheer volume of mostly just noise and disinformation has them paralyzed and living in fear.
All of our political parties are totally failing this generation, and this is shameful and unforgivable. Our next generation is now in the educational system and by not teaching them how to reason in a digital society we are unfortunately setting them up for failure as well. This is sad and unforgivable.
Has society in the 21st century really lost the ability to "fix" things?
John Fisher
Barrie
