Monday, July 22, 2013

What is lazy thinking?

Lazy thinking is a devastating habit for society, that can perpetuate at the least, injustice, discrimination, paranoia and all the vagaries of a crumbling society.

Discrimination of many forms has its origin in lazy thinking. The noteworthy discriminations that are discussed today are racism, sexism, ageism, all have deep roots and originate from lazy thinking. Lazy thinking therefore is detrimental to society and humanity in general.

It's good not to be lazy. And it's better not to be lazy in thinking. It's most best to not to be lazy and not to be lazy in thinking.

The Sinister Left-Hand
The categorization of all people who are left-handed to be sinister in the medieval times originated from the people, because they thought left-handed people were different than normal people who are right-handed. The difference was enough to rile up suspicions in the minds of these lazy thinkers, and when one found a particular left-handed person or a series of left-handed people who were found to be sinister, the categorization was applied. This selective bias was rooted in the difference between left-handed and right-handed people, with the majority of right-handed people having an upper-hand. And thus, was born the myth.

Race Relations
This similar situation occurs with race as well. If a black person excels in academics, he may be discouraged subtly since he is different from other black people that a black or a non-black person has met. The subtlety or the overtness of this categorization doesn't matter as much. What matters is that it occurred. And the internalization may take place. In this case, if the internalization did take place, the lazy thinking occurred also in the academically excelling black person, even though it's not directly his fault. So here we have two lazy thinkers: the one who subtly or overtly claims that the black person is different since he is not acting like a "normal" black person (not that this person really knows what is normal or not since he is biased to begin with). And the other more unfortunate lazy thinker is the one who listens to the racist and internalizes his judgment (in what could take days, weeks, months, years).

The fortunate proactive thinker would fare well in both parties if they were present. The racist categorization would not take place. The racist internalization would not take place either.

Lazy thinking is a thinking process, that takes shortcuts in analysis. Thinking in analogies, applying a broad stroke when precise analysis is needed, selective biases are major examples of lazy thinking. Each situation is unique, each life is unique, each conversation is unique. While similarities do occur, approaching these situations with a pre-determined bias from earlier experiences would qualify as lazy thinking.

What you think and how you think are what you are.