Opus 2026-281: Where Do You Fit?

Asking questions is one of the ways we learn.  All questions are not vocal.  Sometimes they are just a matter of turning over a rock to see what is under it or sniffing the milk to see if it has gone bad.  Still, we grow by questioning.  My thinking currently comes up with three approaches to questioning.

You have the skeptic who questions everything and accepts what he finds is true.  The skeptic genuinely wants to know what it real, right and valid but he does not accept things just because some guru has made a declaration.  Skepticism is at the central core of real science because the scientific method is based on always moving on to another question.

The skeptic has nothing in common with the cynic except that questions are asked.

The cynic questions everything and rejects everything.  In its earliest, playful version it is the child who produces a continual string of why’s.  The child does not really want an answer, it is all a game.  The adult cynic also does not really want an answer.  When you have answers you are forced to act on them and the cynic does not want to be accountable or responsible.

Most people are naive.  The naïve questions nothing and accepts what he is told.  He may be afraid to ask a question.  He may be afraid to know the answer.  He may even be so out of touch that he doesn’t know there are questions to be asked.  The naive continue to vote the way their parents voted if they bother to vote at all.  They live in the same town and shop at the same stores unless some popular trend moves them to conform.

Our culture needs more skeptics and fewer naive.  Cynics we can deal with because they at least generate a response from thinking people.

homo unius libri