Paranoia As An Educational Mindset

This is my tribute to the late Neil Postman's Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1968, reissued 2003). This great book was the book which confirmed my desire to become a teacher, and it is an eminently sane and reasonable book, despite being a little dated - he wrote it before the days of the Internet, and indeed before the days of personal computers.

The first chapter of this masterpiece of educational wisdom is called 'Crap Detecting'. It is the reason why I don't believe in teaching material first and mindset second. It is the reason why I teach that bullshit detectors are the most important items in anyone's mental toolkit, and that bullshit creation is the world's most important (and egregious) industry. (If any of my students are reading this, replace 'bullshit' with 'b**ls**t' as my only concession to prudish parents. Unless you also want to replace 'crap' with 'carp' and become a koi collector instead.)

But how does one actively pursue self-education, and hence the potential enhancement of one's autologous crap detectors? How does one become a crap detective without becoming overly paranoid?

There are no easy answers. I would have to say that the chief activity is reading: read a lot of stuff claiming to be non-fiction. If you can't understand what you read, either learn to translate, or prove to your own satisfaction that what you're reading is so badly written that the difficulty is not entirely your fault. Some very good books are badly written. Not many, but a few.

Next, compare what you have read with three things: tests of reality (have you observed that this might be true, have you observed counterexamples etc), tests of consistency (do independent witnesses say the same thing, does the author contradict himself at any point etc), and tests of cosmology (what would the world be like if this were true, could you live in such a world etc). Failure of the first test might mean further testing, failure of the second test might mean further reading, and failure of the third might mean further living. Remember: the unexamined life isn't worth living, but the too-closely examined life might be just as bad.

I'm going to offer one small and relatively uncontroversial example.

The humanitarian group known as the St John Ambulance Brigade actually has somewhat fraudulent origins. You can look at what they implicitly claim as their history here. It is more accurate to say that they follow in the footsteps of a noble tradition - the Sovereign and Illustrious Order of St John of Jerusalem, Anglia was set up in 1862, and granted royal charter by Queen Victoria only in 1888. This is not to disparage the Order and its great humanitarian works, but to point out that while it certainly has the grand ideals and vision of the Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem (and later Rhodes, and Malta), they aren't linear descendants of that order. A summary of the full story can be found here.

The first test tells us that the SJAB does indeed do humanitarian works. The second test tells us that they might have a few problems claiming direct descent (as some of them do) from the 11-12th century Knights of the Hospital. The third test says you can probably live with it. So although some goldfish swim free, it's OK. No need for paranoia, and some education has been obtained.

Here is a site pointed out by an august individual. It's a great place to start exercising your new-found skills. Enjoy! Paranoia can be educational. And remember, the Computer is your friend.