Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [8]
Rate yourself on each of the seven characteristics of good thinkers that are listed above. Which are you strongest in? Which weakest? If you behavior varies form situation to situation, try to determine what kinds of issues or circumstances bring out your best and worst mental qualities.
Is there any pattern to the way you think about a problem or issue? Does an image come to mind first? Or perhaps a word? What comes next? And what after that? If you can't answer these questions completely, do this exercise: Flip half a dozen pages ahead in this book, pick a sentence at random, read it, and note how your mind deals with it. (Such thinking about your thinking may be a little awkward at first. If it is, try the exercise two or three times.)
Read each of the following statements carefully. Then decide what question(s), if any, a good critical thinker would find it appropriate to ask.
Television news is sensational in its treatment of war because it gives us pictures only of injury, death, and destruction.
My parents were too strict – they wouldn't let me date until I was sixteen.
It's clear to me that Ralph doesn't care for me – he never spoke when we passed in the ball.
From a commercial for a new network: "The news is changing every minute of the day, so you constantly need updating to keep you informed."
The statement of an Alabama public elementary school teacher who had students recite the Lord's Prayer and say grace before meals: "I feel part of my job as a teacher is to instill values children need to have a good life."7
State and explain your position on each of the following controversial issues, applying what you leaned in this chapter.
The rape laws in some states require that the force used in the act be sufficient to produce a fear in the victim of serious physical injury or death. Some laws also require that the victim earnestly resist the assault. Where those conditions are not present, a rapist will not be prosecuted.
In what was believed to be the first national attempt to bring economic pressure to make a television network tone down the sex and violence in its programming, the Coalition for Better Television urged the public to boycott products made by RCA because the network owned by that company, NBC, had "excluded Christian characters, Christian values, and Christian culture from their programming." NBC denounced the move as "an obvious attempt at intimidation."8
The increase in violent crimes by teenagers and even young children in recent years has prompted many people to urge that the criminal justice system treat juvenile offenders as adults. Some even argue that the most serious offenders should receive the death penalty.
In 1989 President George Bush publicly rejected a proposal to ban assault rifles. His view supported the National Rifle Association's position that the right to bear arms should not be abridged. Many police organizations strongly disagree with this position.
The U.S. Supreme Court has considered the cases of two teenagers who committed heinous crimes. In one seventeen-year-old raped and then murdered a gas station attendant. In the other a sixteen-year-old stabbed a liquor store owner eight times, killing her. Many believe the death penalty is appropriate in such cases. Others believe that the death penalty is always inappropriate for minors regardless of the crime.9
An unstable man called an Alabama television newsroom and threatened to kill himself. The station notified the police and then dispatched a camera crew to the scene. The crew reportedly stood by, filming, while the man doused himself with lighter fluid and lit two matches in an unsuccessful attempt to ignite himself. They moved in to stop him only after his third, successful attempt. The television station subsequently ran the film footage on the air. One member of the crew explained later, "My job is to record events as they happen." Many people find fault with the television crew's response to the situation.10