Solitary Thinking

One definition of a fool would be "one who I never in doubt but seldom correct,". What cause that state o being is what I would call "solitary thinking" or coming to conclusions while refusing to hear any outside rationale. The fool is comfortable resting on his/her solitary thoughts without the burden of weighing in any dissenting voices. Having come to a conclusion, the foo does not allow even facts to sway him/her. As the saying goes, "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts."

There is a lot of that going on from the city streets to the halls of congress.  I listened to a reporter ask a woman in the recent march in Washington, "What exactly are you marching about?"  Rather than engage in dialogue, she began to accuse him of being a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, etc.  Her mind was fully made up, she had no interest in discussing, defending or even defining what her reasoning might be. Apparently, one ether supported her actions wholesale, without question or he/she was an enemy.  There would be no give and take of conversation, only capitulation to unipolar thinking.

Regardless of how pervasive this kind of thinking may be, it is perverse.  It is childish, it is divisive, it is patently foolish: "The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice" (Prov 12:15).  The fool, despite how strongly they hold to their beliefs, are weak thinkers because they do not allow the pain of cross-examination to sharpen their thinking.

The truth of Solomon's statement, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Pr 27:17) would not be true if the two pieces of iron always went in the same direction or the two individuals always agreed.  Growth in intellect only happens when confronted with dissension of thought. And, even then, only when the ears are employed in concert with the mouth. Jus' Say'n.