Benjamin fails to follow his own principles

THE EDITOR: Dr Errol Benjamin, who has written a textbook on critical thinking, failed to follow his own principles in an article in the December 12 Newsday headlined “A literate population.”

Benjamin asserted that “widespread literacy means asking questions about the stewardship of our leadership which, in turn, means having to account, with an appropriate political consequence at the ballot box.”

Now literacy simply means being able to read, so if Benjamin is redefining the word, he is guilty of tautology (circular argument). He then goes on to assert, “All around you will hear the ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ of the people, but without the will and know-how, the character, cognitive capacity which their education would have produced in them to ask meaningful questions about their leadership.”

Benjamin gets this exactly backward. First, cognitive capacity is based on IQ and education raises IQ by just a few points, if at all. Second, interrogating leadership is based on character, not education, and it is a historical fact that intellectuals have supported authoritarian regimes more often than not, from Hitler to Stalin, to Mao, to their Caribbean darling Fidel Castro.

Hence, critical thinking shows that an electorate can only choose effective leaders if the political system and culture facilitate such individuals, which ours certainly does not.

JENSEN RUSHTON

San Fernando