I’ll write more about these later…as well as to add to the list. At present, however, there are three paradigms that Kay and I have adopted for our family. They are:
- All rational, all the time. We see no sense in ever being irrational, unreasonable, illogical, inconsistent, or self-contradictory. This means that we are regularly examining in own thoughts, motives, and behaviors as a way of life.
- The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—wherever it may lead. We are not interested in believing, repeating, promoting, teaching, or exhibiting anything that is not true. This means that not even our longest-held or dearest beliefs are safe from new discoveries. Indeed, we have discarded many previous ideas in favor of what eventually proved to be true. Similarly, we strive to discard any dishonest or inaccurate view of ourselves that we should discover in our own thinking, and we strive never to exaggerate, except for the sake of humor.
- Self correction is the rightful duty of mankind. It seems only natural that if each of us was in the habit of honestly and diligently correcting his own errors, the world would be a much nicer place. Thus to we assume upon ourselves an obligation to correct our own errors. This applies to everything from simple matters of fact to deep moral/ethical issues. To cite some random and mundane examples, we strive to use proper grammar, we refuse to use the world “Indians” to refer to people who are not from India, and we refuse to enter through the “Exit” and vice versa.
There are certainly other worthy paradigms–and others will be added to this list in short order.
Jack
