More Olde-Tymie News Stuffs

Back to the lighter side, here's another example of a substantial chunk of editorial from the Ft. Jones news rag, dated Saturday, June 15, 1889:

Learning to Think

In everyday life no fact is more noticeable than the inability of many persons to do their own thinking, even in matters and upon lines wholly within the range of their intelligence. They will see a point that is suggested to them, and will at once understand its bearing on some matter in hand, but they do not seem to have the faculty or art of raising points for themselves, and consequently their action is not as intelligent as it might be. If given a rule to work by, they will apply it not only in season but out of season, and will look amazed if one suggests that under special circumstances, they should have varied their usual procedure. Every employer and overseer knows to what an extent this is the case. It is the exceptional workman who really thinks, and who can therefore be trusted to suit his circumstances. And so in nearly every sphere of life, a kind of automatism seems to be the rule, and intellegent (sic) self-direction, in the light of present facts, more or less the exception. One is therefore tempted to ask whether in connection with our system of education some gymnastic might not be devised for the special purpose of teaching the rising generation to think.

We do not know who the author of the above paragraph is but he has well said what people who do think have thought of a thousand times. The automaton who does everything because his muscles are schooled to it by a more intelligent power never can be more than a mere machine. If an over ambitious workman, who is always suggesting something new and perhaps impracticable is objectionable, the man who never has a thought above doing just what he is told - nothing less nor more - is a downright nuisance and must always occupy a subordinate position or none at all. Originality, even wrongly directed, is preferable to an absolute want of the power to devise a way out of a difficulty of, better yet, to avoid it altogether in the absence of the head of the concern. Thought rightly directed is self-reliance, which is the foundation if not the the essence of fortune. This talk of the NEWS to its young readers is not intended to reflect upon a single member of the large circle who peruse its columns but to stimulate the habit of thought and that kind of thought which like applied science, is prolific of grand results.

I suppose I could editorialize the editorial, but that would defeat the purpose. As it stands, perhaps we should take the editor's advice and just dwell upon it individually, divining our own sense of correctness and/or falsity. Think about it for ourselves and take our own truths from it, or use it as a springboard for our own mental provocations.