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D. Michael Rivage-Seul's eye-opening new book, The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking: Seeing Through Alternative Fact & Fake News, invites readers to try out what Baba Dick Gregory calls the "magic glasses" of critical thinking. Gregory's eyewear suggests ten rules for seeing through the haze created by any culture's ruling group mind. The criteria urge students to: (1) reflect systemically, (2) select market (as an organizing principle), (3) reject neutrality, (4) suspect ideology, (5) respect history, (6) inspect scientifically, (7) quadra-sect violence, (8) connect with your deepest self, (9) collect conclusions, and (10) detect silences. The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking then applies those criteria to a broader contemporary context where fascist tendencies reminiscent of the 1930s are unmistakable. Surprising interpretations of familiar Hollywood and documentary films illustrate every point, making this book a fascinating text and discussion starter for critical thinking and composition courses at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
List of contents
List of Figures - Introduction: Critical Thinking, Magic Glasses, and Film - Part One: Critical Thinking in Our Post-Fact World of Fake News - Alternative Fact and Fake News Inside Plato's Cave - My Own Escape From Our Culture's Cave: From Ego-Centrism to Global Awareness - Inching Towards Cosmic Consciousness - Part Two: The First Eight Rules of Critical Thinking - Rule One: Reflect Systemically - Rule Two: Select Market as the Economic Root of Political Differences - Rule Three: Reject Neutrality - A Compromise World Vision - Rule Four: Suspect Ideology - Rule Five: Respect History - Rule Six: Inspect Scientifically - Rule Seven: Quadra-Sect Violence - Rule Eight: Connect With Your Deepest Self - Part Three: Reviewing History Through the Magic Glasses - How the Wealthy Privatized the Commons - Colonialism and Its Structures - Commoners Resist Privatization - Hitler and Fascism's Defense of Privatization - Part Four: Fascism Today, Drawing Conclusions, and Breaking Silence - Continuation of Hitler's System in Globalization and the War on Terrorism - Capitalism's Contemporary Crisis and the Rise of Neo-Fascism - Rule Nine: Collect Conclusions and Live Critically - Rule Ten: Detect Silences (and Fake News) - Index.
About the author
D. Michael Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. He taught for 40 years at Berea College in Kentucky, where he directed the Peace and Social Justice Studies program. There he soon received Bereäs Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching, the institution¿s highest faculty honor. His publications include The Emperor¿s God: Imperial Misunderstandings of Christianity and A Kinder and Gentler Tyranny: Illusions of a New World Order, co-authored with his life partner, Dr. Marguerite K. Rivage-Seul.
Summary
D. Michael Rivage-Seul's new book, The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking: Seeing through Alternative Fact & Fake News, invites readers to try out Baba Dick Gregory's "magic glasses" of critical thinking and apply it to our current reality.
Report
"This very detailed work is a cultural treasure trove of all that the ruling group mind of America erases and selects out. It is a corrective memory bank of an era of big lies, partialities, and hypocritical deceits that thinking people will want to have on their shelves and that students will benefit from close at hand." -John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy and University Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph (Ontario); Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; and Editor of Philosophy and World Problems, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems
