Illogical thinking: Applying the exception to the whole.

k96822 · Phoenix Joined: Jan 25, 2006 Posts: 513

Edit: (I put this in work because I had a conversation at work that led me to write this. But, it probably should be in politics as it progressed).

I keep running into something that is driving me nuts and I have to vent. It's probably been mentioned before. There seems to be this strange way of thinking today where if you say something about a subset of people, no matter how small that subset, the listener will always attribute it to the whole. It is a limited, shallow thinking that is aggrivating me enough to have to blow off some steam.

For example, if I say there are some really bad programmers that should consider other career options, the listener today tends to get defensive and argue that not all programmers are idiots. Now, how do we get there from here? How do we get to the statement, "Everyone is an idiot" from the statement "Some people are idiots"? It's just one example of many.

Argh! What is sad is, I know the answer: it benefits the power structure to have minds that think in absolutes. They get their pet issues, like racism, abortion (whatever hot button issue of the day that will cause eyes to glaze over, the brain to turn yellow, and the fingers to strike the keys from an automatic response) and use absolutes to mess people up. Minds that think in absolutes are maleable and it is easy to introduce conflicting information into them. It's been going on for many years and it is hard to be a rational being in such a world where people are so messed up they are convinced that 2 + 2 could be 5. Or 1. Or PI. "It's all good, so long as you try. You, sir, are a numerist for telling us that 2 + 2 is 4! How dare you! Who are you to tell us that? Oppressor! OPPRESSOR!"

It's so sad; we SHOULD be in the age of rationality, given the wealth of information we have available to us. What a strange paradox!

(Okay, I feel better now. And I didn't even need my Soma!)