Facebook Causes is an interesting application on the now-ubiquitous social networking site which allows anyone to start up an activism group and recruit helpers, without the need for funding or geographic proximity. The about page explains:
“Facebook Platform presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage our generation, most of whom are on Facebook, in seizing the future and making a difference in the world around us. Our generation cares deeply, but the current system has alienated us. Causes provides the tools so that any Facebook user can leverage their network of real friends to effect positive change.
“The goal of all this is what we call ‘equal opportunity activism.’ We’re trying to level the playing field by empowering individuals to change the world.”
And in theory that all sounds great. But what happens when someone decides to start a cause called “Think: Save the World From Stupid People?” Once again, this could theoretically be a valuable development, considering that the people who run our world are often lacking in the intelligence department. And the cause has almost 50,000 members! However, this cause states the following as priorities:
Purpose: Get people to think, not borrow ideas from other people
Positions:
1) Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter
2) The Crowd is Not Always Right
3) Knowledge is Discovered Not Created
4) Truth Exists
5) Think about the causes of your actions
6) Think and Do, In that Order
Description:
-Our goal is to think.
-Our hope is that in meeting our goal, we will also improve the world.
A bunch of red flags went up in my mind after reading these lines. But since I’m a trouble maker and a smart ass, I decided to join the cause and write an inflammatory post on their discussion board. Here’s how it went:
This “cause” is highly contradictory for a few reasons:
1) The title refers to “stupid people,” but stupidity isn’t a measure of how much knowledge one has obtained; that’s called “ignorance.” A stupid person is one who is incapable of intelligence; an ignorant person is just someone who is uneducated or lacking knowledge. I think this cause should be targeting “ignorant people.” If you really want to target stupidity, you have to employ eugenics (forced sterilization, which thereby prevents pregnancy) or genocide (organized mass murder), both of which have been used throughout history — many times by governments — but neither of which are ethical (duh…) or effective. Part of the reason those plans are ineffective is because intelligence is not easily defined (not even by an IQ test), and, therefore, neither is stupidity.
2) The administrators, Chris Wonsiewicz and Alisha Ciardi, are students at the Christian Heritage School, an interdenominational K-12 school whose mission is “to assist parents in fulfilling their God-given responsibility to teach their children, and to provide its students with an education of spiritual and academic excellence with which to serve God.” It’s ironic that a “cause” started to promote free thinking is administrated by people taught to think only in God’s way.
3) The logo is an image of Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher. Plato and his mentor Socrates have both become symbols of Rationalism, which claims that logical reasoning is the primary source of knowledge and truth. However, in 19th and 20th Century literature and philosophy, Rationalism was more often viewed as an insufficient explanation of human nature, life, the world, and the universe. Especially in relation to human beings and freedom, Existentialists such as Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre rejected rationalism, as explained on the corresponding Wikipedia page:
“Existentialism asserts that people actually make decisions based on the meaning to them rather than rationally. The rejection of reason as the source of meaning is a common theme of existentialist thought, as is the focus on the feelings of anxiety and dread that we feel in the face of our own radical freedom and our awareness of death. Kierkegaard saw rationality as a mechanism humans use to counter their existential anxiety, their fear of being in the world. [...] Like Kierkegaard, Sartre saw problems with rationality, calling it a form of ‘bad faith’, an attempt by the self to impose structure on a world of phenomena — ‘the Other’ — that is fundamentally irrational and random. According to Sartre, rationality and other forms of bad faith hinder us from finding meaning in freedom.”
Hence, the combination of psychology (particularly Freudian and Jungian) and Existential thought offer further explanation for the human race, beyond what Rationalism has provided and is capable of providing.
Other points:
1) “Get people to think, not borrow ideas from other people.” – Human knowledge is cumulative in that every generation builds on the progress and experience from throughout human history. We MUST use ideas from other people, especially philosophers, writers, and scientists. But we must be skeptical of everything we encounter, and brave enough to develop our own minds using the background and tools we determine to be useful.
2) “Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter” – Opinion does matter, but it has to be backed by fact, empirical research, previous literature, and/or sound argument. The problem is when people state their opinion as if it were fact in itself.
3) “Think about the causes of your actions. Think and Do, In that Order.” – This sounds like a Think Your Way to Success program. But I guess I can’t argue with the suggestion that people use foresight to avoid potential mistakes.
Please share your opinions/ideas/thoughts/facts/quotes/research 
Similar Posts:
- The Emergency of Life in a Modern World (January 20, 2009)
- Existential Dilemmas (July 21, 2008)
