This is the first in a series of articles on Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking is a subject that is catching the imagination of more and more Americans such that one can say with increasing confidence that it is sweeping the nation. Subsequent articles will address key areas of this fascinating subject. The Moto for Critical Thinking is: Clarify-Reason-Win.

It has been called the most stunning primary upset in political history. David Brat, a professor at Randolph-Macon college in Virginia, a virtual unknown, soundly defeats house majority leader Eric Cantor by a whopping 55.65 to 44.4%. Davis Brat goes on to the general election where he is expected to win.

The magnitude of defeat over Eric Cantor is even more remarkable when one considers that David Brat had no money, little organization, no name recognition, few endorsements and depressing poll numbers-the most recent showed him about 34 % behind.

This lopsided campaign had Eric Cantor raising $5.4 million to David Brat’s $206 thousand. Airing one thousand more paid television ads then his opponent, Eric Cantor was, according to most observers, headed for yet another easy victory. But he lost by more than ten percent. Eric Cantor enjoyed a fifty to one advantage when considering such things as campaign funds, organization, experience and recognition. David Brat, saddled with depressing poll numbers and an equally depressing bank account, was considered a lost cause except for one thing. And that was the content of his message.

The content of David Brat’s message was so powerful that it overcame insurmountable odds, and added for a final measure an additional ten percent. David Brat received 37,369 votes to Eric Cantor’s 28,898. But what was the content of Professor Brat’s message such that it resonated with so many Virginia voters? It must be something refreshingly new and compelling. So let’s take a look at it from not a political perspective but a Critical Thinking perspective.

Davis Brat, first and foremost asserted that we must return to our time honored tradition of electing what he calls Political Philosophers, while simultaneously rejecting cheap political rhetoric and tricks. In the mind of David Brat, as well as many others, Philosophy means that which will enable us to apply critical thinking to the problems of life. Utilizing critical thinking, David Brat went on to explain that an economic system (a nation’s economy) either functions well or doesn’t based on key natural laws and it especially has nothing to do with politics and political rhetoric. This indifference to politics, with a focus on what does and does not work, is the content of Davis Brat’s message; and it was powerful indeed. By the way, it has now been pretty well established that Benjamin Franklin, one of our greatest political philosophers, knew about and used critical thinking. (He called it Moral Algebra).

As I travel around the country, conducting author events, speaking engagements, radio interviews, and the like, I am struck by how many people I meet that are: 1). Dismayed and disgusted with this nation’s inability to solve problems; 2). Not much interested any longer in so called politics as usual; 3). No longer believe that the political establishment has any meaningful problem solving abilities, and 4). Are seriously interested in critical thinking, and want to learn more about it.

In essence, what David Brat, myself and others have discovered is that more and more Americans are promoting the third option. The third option is not based on the ideology of the right or left but exists in a different plane of reference and that plane is the one that will provide us with the ability to achieve success. There is only one way that we know of that can consistently bring success and that is “Critical Thinking”. Critical Thinking has captured the imagination of America, and as one store manager told me recently: “People are hungry for that”. They are fascinated by it’s application in both their individual lives and at the national level as well.

Critical Thinking is a skill that can be learned, lends itself to practice, and when used with intent, it will produce, quite literally, amazing results. As I often say in my lectures: “prepare to be amazed”.
After studying world class chess masters, researchers were indeed amazed to discover they they were all using critical thinking (in the form of abstract clustering) instead of mentally moving individual pieces. This, more than any other factor, contributed to their world class status. This study was conducted in the 1980’s and was one of the first examples of how experts deal with complexity by employing certain aspects of critical thinking. Other studies have revealed the same thing. Critical thinking improves performance, often dramaticallt.

But what is this thing called critical thinking? We can begin by mentioning the critical thinking moto. It goes like this: Clarify-Reason-Win. Slightly expanded, it means to “Clarify the actual; Employ reason; and Gain winning performance. The fundamental argument in favor of critical thinking is that in life what is most important is not what you think, but how you think. Critical thinking informs us how to think, and it does this very well. This is because knowing how to think is not only enduring but trumps being told what to think every time. And by the way, being told what to think is not education but almost always indoctrination, if not outright propaganda.

This brings us to life’s most important decision. And that is we either embrace reason, or do that which is hostile to reason. Human organizations, cultures and countries live or die on whether they are able to consistently embrace reason or do things that are hostile to reason.
In the next installment I will discuss very useful concepts and methods to enable one to “clarify the actual”.

Captain Kevin M Smith, USN(Ret.) is a noted author, speaker and pioneer in the field of applied critical thinking. Captain Smith’s four book series on critical thinking is entitled “Commitment to Reason”; published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises. Endeavor Media Group (EMG) is the booking agent and promotional agency working on Captain Smith’s behalf. Their website: emgnv.com