Censoring Voices Too Critical of Critical Thinking Courses, Collegiality, Civility, and the General War Against Negativity

Abstract

Citizen cynicism is a corrosive asset of democracy. If citizens don't turn on government, government is going to turn on them, because government has become a pawn of big business.- Ralph NaderThis essay was prompted by an application requirement to write on contributions to collegiality in an educational setting for a position as English and Critical Thinking instructor at Mendocino College in California, and submitted to College English, O[double dagger]cial Journal of the College Section of the National Council of Teachers of English, which rejected it without comment. Its premise is quite simply and logically that something profoundly fraudulent must exist in the framework of the bulk of Critical Thinking courses taught throughout the nation in the context of English Department programs because if real critical thought-rigorous logic, and questioning and challenging of all things-were being taught, learned and encouraged, professors would be successfully, though perhaps indirectly, teaching students a lifetime of chronic unemployment, if not incarceration, due to ineluctable conflict with, among others, employers, chairpersons, deans, university presidents, politicians, and police o[double dagger]cers.Critical thinking must imply individual thinking, as opposed to current in-vogue team thinking. It must imply the ability to cut through conformist doctrine, politically-correct orthodoxy, and anything else that might impair the perception of truth. Clearly, it must conflict with conformity, which often demands no thinking at all. Unfortunately, the large majority of college graduates, for the sake of the economy and wealthy class, have been trained to conform, not educated to think critically. They have been trained to fit into corporate, public sector, and educationist functionary roles. Their very professors, for the most part, have been trained as conformists, rarely if ever questioning and challenging the superfluous rituals, traditions, and meetings, as well as jargon for the sake of jargon, and overall sameness of programs and courses pervading academe nationwide today.Real critical thinking must imply a certain degree of negativity (i.e., pessimism, cynicism, and skepticism), commonly designated as a non-desirable behavioral trait. Our society teaches through constant blather of television commercials, politicians, college and university leaders, corporate managers, and any number of other adversaries of negativity, that good citizens should wear happy-face smiles whenever possible. One foreign journalist labeled this seeming American phenomenon as happy-face fascism. The general populace has indeed been taught to equate optimism as a positive behavioral trait and pessimism a negative one. Calling a person a pessimist or cynic is normally not a compliment. Bill Clinton lambasted cynicism, though he was partly responsible for it. So did George Bush. In America, a veritable war, sometimes overt, often covert, is being waged against the demon negativity and for good reason. But for those successfully indoctrinated in the nation's schools and colleges, by the media and rules of supposed good citizenship and civility, the reason will evidently not be obvious.Negativity comprises a variety of pertinent human behaviors proscribed by the Bible, including judging one's neighbors, colleagues, boss, friends, or whomever. It also comprises criticizing the establishment, including one's country, politicians, academics, literary icons, the police, and others. Interestingly, criticism in itself is generally perceived as negative and uncollegial behavior. The editor of Bookpage noted, for example, in Poet's Market 200i: All Bookpage reviews are positive because we don't run negative reviews; it's essential that your review be and genuine. Curiously, the editor implies that a negative review cannot be heartfelt and genuine. Despite the perception and general trend of positivism in reviews of blurbed-to-death books and movies, the term criticism according to dictionaries does not exclude negative commentary. …