Critical vs Analytical

There is a divide in public discourse, a positive and a negative, a factual and an opinion, critical and analytical.

Critical used to mean the bits and pieces of a discussion, an argument of fact, was detailed enough to see and understand the connections and workings of ideas and events. It was not a given that we knew what things meant as they were unfolding. We had to reason them out. We had to understand context, shape, scope and intent or lack of intent. Such discussions increased knowledge and understanding.

Today, critical has come to mean argumentative, debate, to win or lose a discussion. It is as if we were engaged in a great competition to know all things, to be an expert. With a little effort anyone, we thought, could be the winner of a conversation, discussion, or debate.

But we do not live in debate. Maybe, if you are a lawyer involved in negotiations and court trials, you live in a world of debate where there is a winner and loser. Life, however, is not like that.

We live in an ocean of bits and pieces of facts, happenings, ideas, and possibilities. They exist in a jumble altogether. It is up to us to separate what matters from what doesn’t. like a piece of visual art, much is present to view but not all things matter. All things taken together create a context, of course, and in some degree everything in a context is part of the whole, part of the meaning of that whole. But it is not the whole, nor is it representative of the whole.

We jump to conclusions to make things whole and meaningful. The jump, however, does not take everything else into consideration. We omit those elements at the risk of not fully understanding the situation, the gestalt of the moment.

Analytical is a term that better fits what I think we should be working with. Analytical looks at all the pieces of a situation, problem, circumstance, whatever, and makes sense of them all. Analysis tells us some things simply do not fit and we don’t understand why they are present, or what their effect on the other pieces. With more analysis we can expand our understanding. It takes time and patience. It may involve research on items barely understood or defined. Weighing possibilities is involved. We play with the pieces until we are comfortable, we understand what they all mean together.

Analysis, however, also allows space to be wrong or off the mark. It gives us room to amend our thinking as perspective grows. In time we understand more but even then, more time may alter our understanding of the moment.

Analysis is better than critical. Understanding is better than winning.

Let us be analytical. In today’s social climate we need the space to be wrong and still exploratory.

August 18, 2021