By Caleb Nelson, guest contributor
The subjective part of the world, wonderfully unchallengeable and delightfully, well, me-oriented, is the perfect place to hold a controversial opinion: thinking is often wrong; feeling never is. Thus, a few minutes’ sojourn in classrooms, even at colleges supposedly accommodating the nation’s best and brightest, will show the phrase “I feel” to be ridiculously overused in almost every class. I can tell you that a feeling is unjustifiable, that it is loony, that it makes less sense than Joe Biden, even that it ought to be a disreputable outcast—but I can’t tell you that you don’t feel it.
Cowardice begets these feelings; laziness sustains them. Having no real belief in my own opinion, I call it a feeling so that it can’t be called baloney. By this means, I retire from intellectual life as easily as John Elway retired from football, letting my thoughts wander, never taking the trouble to justify my words and actions, taking refuge in the fortress of my own subjectivity, letting the world pass me by while I sip lemonade and laugh at the folly of those who are able to give a reason. After all, am I not wiser than seven of them?
I have just described the fool, a man who subscribes so enthusiastically to popular notions that he can see nothing but how uncomfortable it is to say something falsifiable. The humble man is not so; aware of his own inadequacies and errors, he eagerly submits to rebuke. He wants to be corrected, for he wants to learn and grow. “Teach a wise man,” says the ancient book of Proverbs, “and he will be yet wiser.” Teach a wise man? Too bad so few of this country’s professors ever get the chance.
Interesting topic. But your writing makes it damn near unreadable.
I'm guessing you likes to paint yourself as the one person in the room who knows better, who isn't impressed by the "meager" achievements of others. Really, you're just a cynic.
I believe I will now tell you a story: When I was in college I had to deal with the Dean of Students on some bureaucratic technicality whereby he had to approve of my receiving credits for some class or other. I was told directly by his secretary to NEVER express that I 'feel' this or that about the subject at hand. Instead I must 'believe' something to be the case instead. IOW he had a hang up about humans feeling things to be true rather than believing them to be true. I followed her advice and got my bureaucratic check mark.
The day of our graduation he gave us a speech about how we MUST NOT flip the tassel on our mortar board silly hats from one side to the other after receiving our pseudo-diploma while walking down the stairs off the stage. His dire warning was that we will trip and fall and make fools of ourselves because we are uncoordinated little peons, despite having survived his glorious educational institution. So I happily defied Dean-anti-feelings and successfully flipped him the bird by flipping my tassel. It felt very good.
Seriously, this is the most trivial thing I've ever read. Maybe the reason people use "I feel" so often is because they're sick of other pompous blowhards like Mr. Article Writer telling them they're wrong and that they need to get their facts straight. The world wasn't built to please you. Gasp! Shocking.
Also, your attempts at elocution come off as banal and arrogant at best, nonsensical and clueless at worst.
You're failing the grade as an educator by not recognizing that the history of the student is an important component of his or her learning. That history is composed in feeling, and the pathways of thought thus influenced. When you insist on "pure" thought, you're in the lab, not the real world.
When someone says "I feel" da-da-da-da, he or she is giving you valuable information about themselves and is speaking to you in and of the fullness of personal history.
When you ignore that, you do so at the peril of education itself. If, further you repress it, you complicate the learning process for that person needlessly, and you ignore basic modern neuroscience in the efficiency and effectiveness of your teaching style.
I have to question, however, where the study is. Does it consist of what you feel is the biggest problem in the classroom today?
Trust me, the world is composed of exactly as many critical thinkers today as it has been in the past. Critical thinking is still taught, and there are still those out there who question everything, including themselves.
Then again, I'm not likely in the same country as you are - so your experiences may not match my own.
The phrases "I think" and "I feel" are pretty much the same. A person who would disregard what a person feels is disregarding an entire aspect about the human mind. The fact that you even used 'I' sets the tone to be a very personal belief.
I think you just aren't getting laid enough to realize how trivial your rant is about people who "feel". Women "feel", are you telling me their opinions are worth nothing?
Truly yours,
Czar Kazm
As always, your witty style made me laugh. I think that you hit a chord with most of your readers.