Gullible Us

We were born gullible, raised gullible, and educated to be gullible. But as adults, when it comes to decision making in critical contexts - personal, national, or global - gullibility poses a dire threat. Nothing can be decided rationally when gullibility rules the mind - not health care issues, financial strategies, education planning, or anything else that really matters. In today's world, the gullers have our eyes and ears twenty-four seven. But who are they? Where do they lurk? What are their methods? We get some answers to these questions, and then propose ways to defend ourselves. If gullibility is the illness, you might hope that education is the cure. But public education as we know it today does nothing to discourage gullibility, and a great deal to support it. A new approach is needed - an approach that exploits the natural symbiosis that exists among science, math, computer science, and the arts - an approach that encourages creativity and critical reasoning while making subjects more engaging and exciting. It's not a plan that can be implemented quickly or on the cheap. But even small steps should temper the rampant gullibility that plagues our society.