About the Book
D. Michael Rivage-Seul's eye-opening new book, The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking: Seeing Through Alternative Fact & Fake News, invites readers to try out what Baba Dick Gregory calls the "magic glasses" of critical thinking. Gregory's eyewear suggests ten rules for seeing through the haze created by any culture's ruling group mind. The criteria urge students to: (1) reflect systemically, (2) select market (as an organizing principle), (3) reject neutrality, (4) suspect ideology, (5) respect history, (6) inspect scientifically, (7) quadra-sect violence, (8) connect with your deepest self, (9) collect conclusions, and (10) detect silences. The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking then applies those criteria to a broader contemporary context where fascist tendencies reminiscent of the 1930s are unmistakable. Surprising interpretations of familiar Hollywood and documentary films illustrate every point, making this book a fascinating text and discussion starter for critical thinking and composition courses at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
About the Author :
D. Michael Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. He taught for 40 years at Berea College in Kentucky, where he directed the Peace and Social Justice Studies program. There he soon received Berea's Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching, the institution's highest faculty honor. His publications include The Emperor's God: Imperial Misunderstandings of Christianity and A Kinder and Gentler Tyranny: Illusions of a New World Order, co-authored with his life partner, Dr. Marguerite K. Rivage-Seul.
Review :
"D. Michael Rivage-Seul has provided an invaluable resource for teachers and students of critical thinking. His ten rules lucidly explain concepts that most outside the Global South find difficult to understand and accept. His presentation makes those thoughts accessible to all. Bravo!" --Franz Hinkelammert, economist, liberation theologian, and Convener of The Critical Thinking Group, San Jose, Costa Rica
"[This book is] a compelling story of D. Michael Rivage-Seul's journey in critical thinking as he learns to view the world through the vantage point of the Global South. This creative approach to learning critical thinking recognizes that it is more than learning the rules of logical reasoning. Rather, it is a frame of mind that interrogates reality and the cultural ideas through which we interpret it. Critical thinking challenges us to consciously adopt an interpretive framework based on our stage of personal development and social commitments. Influenced by liberation theology and practicing Paulo Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed, Rivage-Seul is conscientized with the glasses of the Global South. His readers will come away with their eyes opened as well, or at least be left very uncomfortable." --Cliff DuRand, Center for Global Justice, Editor of Recreating Democracy in a Globalized State and Moving Beyond Capitalism
"I love this book. It's brilliantly written by a very wise man who's been serially enriched by spending time with some of the world's greatest visionaries, and he shares what he's learned from his conversations with them. The book is addictively readable. I started to skim the book to see if it was worth putting my time into and found I couldn't stop reading. D. Michael Rivage-Seul brings sparkling vivacity to the potentially dry topic of critical thinking. As one who has interviewed hundreds of visionaries, I found this book to offer new perspectives and ways of seeing--which is what building critical thinking skills is all about. This book offers so much more than what its title, at first glance, suggests. Have a taste and you will, like me, find yourself wanting to consume all the courses of this delicious meal." --Rob Kall, Host of the Bottom Up Radio Show, Publisher of OpEdNews.com, and Author of Bottom-Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution
"This very detailed work is a cultural treasure trove of all that the ruling group mind of America erases and selects out. It is a corrective memory bank of an era of big lies, partialities, and hypocritical deceits that thinking people will want to have on their shelves and that students will benefit from close at hand." --John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy and University Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph (Ontario); Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; and Editor of Philosophy and World Problems, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems
"Those with the courage to put on D. Michael Rivage-Seul's Magic Glasses will be given the opportunity to acquire the conditions of possibility for seeing the world with new conceptual lenses. This magical eyewear is not rose-tinted but assists the wearer in penetrating the viscera of social life, whose dank cavities contain the muck of the ages, the bile of political bitterness, and the sinewy tissue that connects all the turpitudinous machinations of everyday life. But if one steadies one's gaze, a glint of light appears, growing brighter the more one becomes accustomed to a more magnified world. And eventually the wearer is able to illuminate possibilities for reimagining the landscape of the ordinary, whose dank and fetid rot can become transformed into the loam of the extraordinary--the foundations for a new and more critical and loving humanity." --Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor of Critical Studies, Chapman University, and author of Pedagogy of Insurrection
"While the words 'critical thinking' have become an almost essential part of academic discourse and thinking, it is not always clear what is meant. In The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking: Seeing Through Alternative Fact & Fake News, D. Michael Rivage-Seul offers us a book that deals simply, clearly, and decisively with the subject. From discussions on mainstream mass media to models of socio-economic systems to the way we read history, this book bristles with relevance. Opening the lens wide yet able to zoom in on the details that matter, enlighten and challenge, this book, with its wonderful 'ten rules of critical thinking, ' offers the kind of engaged pedagogy that enriches immensely our discourse. It succeeds in finding ways for meaningful conversation between the North and the Global South, and that is not only more important than ever, it might also be the singular underlying strength of this gift of a book." --Allan Boesak, South African liberation theologian and Distinguished Professor of Religion and Social Justice, Berea College
