Essay: Accurate thinking

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Accurate thinking

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

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Heinrich #Scholz Walter R. #Fuchs, #Cybernetics for the Modern Mind

Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Accurate thinking

I’ve been carrying this hand-written note around with me since high school. Note to parents: What is YOUR impressionable young boy or girl reading when they think you’re not looking?

“There are people who think in a way which I would simply call “accurate” thinking. They are people with persistent, highly controlled intellectual habits. These people can be recognized by four characteristics:

“They remain inexorably silent if they have nothing to say which is at least formulated in such a way that it could be tested.

“They only make assertions about something when whatever this may be will stand up to a possible subsequent test; with the reservation, however, that sometime in the distant future something could be discovered that might lead to a revaluation of their statement.

“They distinguish precisely in what they say between that which they can prove and that which they cannot prove.

“They object relentlessly to something being said in such a way that it cannot be tested, or if it can be tested it will not stand up to a rigorous repeat-test.”

Heinrich Scholz; mathematician, theologian

Quoted in:
Walter R. Fuchs, Cybernetics for the Modern Mind, p. 47, Rupert Hart-Davis Educational Publications and The Macmillan Company , 1971 (Translation)

 

Essay: Buddhist “Right Speech” as a practical virtue

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Buddhist “Right Speech” as a practical virtue

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

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Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Buddhist “Right Speech” as a practical virtue

You may know that I am writing a book about virtues. I added the Buddhist “Noble Eightfold Path” to my listing of virtues after an unproductive search for a virtue that fully embodied “delicacy of speech.” That is, the deliberate choice of words that carefully avoids damaging the fragile stem of newly-sprouted expression in others. It was gentler than tact. It was more specific than thoughtfulness. It was more loving than kindness or even loving-kindness. It was a gentler movement of a whispered expression than love. I could think of nothing more apt then the first Eightfold path virtue of “Right Speech.”

The Buddhist concept of Right Speech, of course, covers the courser commissions of lying, malicious slander, harsh anger, and idle gossip. However, to me, in this moment, it also needed to go past “do no harm,” and past pure and absolute gentleness–all the way to nurturing delicacy without hint of harm; speech that was fully, aptly, right.

I have been in the writing practice of completing a fully-formed suite of ideas, usually about a single-spaced page, and taking it downstairs to read aloud to my wife. She is usually quite tolerant and will pause in whatever she is doing to receive it. She rarely responds with anything but mild acceptance or a simple, thoughtful word of approval. Sometimes she notices one of my characteristic shifts in verb tense or a typo and I am grateful to her for noticing that.

Last night, she called up the stairs to say that I she had sent me an e-mail and asked if I had read it. No, I wasn’t aware of it yet, but I would check it out. I discovered that she had written the first chapter of a children’s book, based on her childhood experiences. At the end, she had written,

Essay: The ugly truth about hate speech

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The ugly truth about hate speech

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

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Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

The ugly truth about hate speech

It has been a week for contemplating Matthew 12:34, where Jesus pointed out that, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” We continue to be witness to speech and actions of intense hate, cruelty, and outright evil.

I like to think that I am optimistic and frequently take note of good things and of how many things are getting better. But, at this moment my heart is heavy and my head is bowed.

This week, I watched a recording of Representative John Sullivan from Oklahoma at a town hall meeting. He implicitly threatened Democratic Senators: “You know, but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their heads and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.” [He later apologized.]

Memories from just over a year ago came flooding back. Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at point blank range by an anti-government activist. Eighteen other people were also shot and six of them died.

I was reminded of how that year was thick with the coded language of “Second Amendment remedies.” Sarah Palin’s PAC had published a political action “target map” showing Giffords’ district in the crosshairs of a gun. Even the Pima Arizona County Sheriff expressed concerns that the pervasive rhetoric of anger, hatred, prejudice, and bigotry that he felt had contributed to Giffords’ shooting.

A brief Internet search shows that there are at least six different versions of “Liberal Hunting Permit” circulating – usually with no bag limit.

Don’t even try to tell me that this is harmless rhetoric.

This is Real.
This is Immediate.
This is Persistent.
This is Personal.
This is Evil.

I lived in southern Texas when James Byrd, Jr. was lynched not so very long ago. He was tied with chains to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to death near Jasper, Texas.

Fear and hate in our hearts and hands are not yet gone from our nation. 

Let us take a stand for the fruitages of the spirit. May our hearts be open to abundant love, joy, peace…

 

Essay: Letter to the editor – President Obama could echo FDR’s reelection speech

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Letter to the editor – President Obama could echo FDR’s reelection speech

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

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Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Letter to the editor – President Obama could echo FDR’s reelection speech

Letter to the Editor
Fort Dodge Messenger
  (Published May 16, 2012)

In 1936, FDR (that would be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the young whippersnappers) gave a speech in Madison Square Garden, New York, just days before his re-election. It was powerful; defiant; inspiring.

I was startled by how circumstances now reflect that time of monopoly, grave financial risk-taking, pocket government, and the resulting Great Depression. I was astonished at how FDR’s words could just as easily be coming from our current president.

“For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away.

“Nine mocking years with the golden calf and

Essay: Hate speech at my US Post Office

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Hate speech at my US Post Office

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

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A personal story of #conservative #intolerance 

Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Hate speech at my US Post Office

I recently found a “hate note” posted on the information board at my small-town US Post Office. There were also three modified cartoons referring to President Obama, fried chicken, watermelon, and black salami. I thought that the cartoons were inappropriate and offensive to public decency; I removed them.

The note seemed more personal, so I added my answer and left it there. The original message was: “What do you call 20,000 liberals in the bottom of the ocean? A good start. Liberalism is a mental disorder.”

My answer read: “Please, don’t just threaten me and post anonymous racist hate cartoons against our elected President in a US Post Office. Make your case, explain your issues, and give practical ideas for improvement… and please have the courage to sign your name. With sincere best wishes, Your neighbor, David Satterlee”

Frankly, I worried that the threat could get personal. It may already be personal: I’d had an