Practical Thinking
Active Thought in an Age of Intellectual Sclerosis
“Thinking is, indeed, essentially the negation of that which is immediately before us.” — G.W.F. Hegel
“Reflective thought and action lose their meaning in the struggle for self-preservation.” — Max Horkheimer, “The End of Reason”
Thought has become one-dimensional. That is, it is only important in the realm of the pragmatic, day to day uses thereof. People tend to “think” about their positions at their jobs and how to better them (not usually about the worthwhileness of their work), what clothes to wear (aided, of course, by the fashion propaganda industry of GQ and Mademoiselle), what to do on Saturday night, etc. Thought has become synonymous with submission to the present social standards and institutions. This is most clearly seen in education: education shuns what is not pragmatic and (withers its way down to) business education, which is a lesson in how to conform to and learn the ways of the major institutions of today’s society. Thought has also lost its capability to communicate honestly. In the present society, marked by mass advertising and mass politics, all words become a means of manipulation. Behind the slogans of the mass advertisements found in magazines and on television lies a desire to manipulate one into a certain form of action and a certain mode of thinking. Communication is now viewed with understandable suspicion--from the words of mass advertisers to the words of politicians (the two have now merged), all words are a means to manipulate. (Thus, thought has lost its transcendental capability: its seeing beyond the present.) The critical edge of thought must be renewed.
It is essential to destroy the widespread prejudice that philosophy is a strange and difficult thing just because it is the specific intellectual activity of a particular category of specialists or of professional and systematic philosophers. It must first be shown that all [people] are ‘philosophers,’ by defining the limits and characteristics of the ‘spontaneous philosophy’ which is proper to everybody. — Antonio Gramsci
I have moved from the house of scholars and I even banged the door behind me. My soul sat hungry at their table too long;…rather would I sleep on ox hides than on their decorums and respect abilities. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Although by no means is this an anti-intellectual effort, the preliminary organizers of this project are very much against the hoarding of “learning” and “knowledge” in the realm of academia. Thoughts, discourse, research and so forth should never be relegated to one segment of society, for thought is inherently social and depends upon open social interaction to develop fully. The idea that education should be confined to a specific period of time in one’s life is utter nonsense. Thought must be developed through discourse and assertions at a grassroots, community level.
The essential goal here is to gain a critical understanding of our present social-historical situation. This is not another way of stating that we want to construct a rigid dogma to criticize the world with — we reject dogma. For we see knowledge as never being complete — knowledge must constantly develop (such as through dialogues) and not be demeaned into becoming a means to indoctrinate interested people with a new dogma. Thus, this writing is to be a means of discourse--a means of expression for viewpoints and ideas that might not otherwise be read or understood. We firmly believe that knowledge must aid in transcending our present institutions and social standards. As Richard Bernstein states in his book The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory:
The most important feature in the restructuring of social and political theory has been the reassertion of the necessity and legitimacy of the critical function of theory. In this respect the restructuring of social and political theory reflects and contributes to a larger intellectual movement of our times. We are coming to realize that human rationality cannot be limited to technical and instrumental reason; that human beings can engage in rational argumentation in which there is a commitment to the critical evaluation of the quality of human life; that we can cultivate theoretical discourse in which there is a rational discussion of the conflict of critical interpretations, and practical discourse in which human beings try not to simply manipulate and control one another, but to understand one another genuinely and work together toward practical--not technical ends.
Although we realize that there is a great need to understand our present social situation through knowledge, we do not deny the importance of social action to change social institutions. America has had a long history of social change through the deliberate effort of concerned citizens. Witness the long struggle of workers to be treated as decent and respected human beings. Witness the oppression they faced when their strikes were met with federal repression, such as the strikes of railroad workers in 1877 when federal troops were called in by President Hayes to put down a popular and widespread strike that was regional in size. Witness the struggle of Jane Addams and others as they created “settlement houses” between 1890 and 1910 to aid poor immigrants to gain a sense of honor and dignity (documented in Addams’s book, Twenty Years at Hull House). Or even earlier, witness the struggle to overthrow slavery and its evil oppression of black people by such people as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Closer to our present social situation, witness the strike of of workers at Hormel Co. plants in Minnesota and the violence they met with. Witness the struggle against the Vietnam War in America during the 1960’s. And witness the present work being done on behalf of the homeless and other unrepresented and/or repressed groups by organizations such as the Community for Ctreative Non-Violence. All of these actions have helped in transcending the social institutions they were met with. Social action has aided in the great deed to see beyond the present.
We see the need to combine our thoughts with our action, our theory with our practice. We believe that social change can only come through intelligent discourse and social theory, as well as individual reflection. To understand society and its present configurations is to desire to partake in it and to make it a truly human and humane society. And thus as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “All ‘it was’ is a fragment, a riddle, a dreadful accident — until the creative will says to it, ‘But thus I willed it.’ Until the creative will says to it, ‘But thus I will it; thus shall I will it.’” This is the true aim here — to see beyond the present and then to go there.
(Written collaboratively by Kevin Mattson and John Jankowski)
Any thoughts, comments or criticisms, please reach out to me at jjankow63@gmail.com. Thanks for bothering!
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