The modern person who ignores the metacognition alternative by neglecting to fortify his or her capacities for informed responsiveness––as with life-affirming values, ethics-centered convictions, knowledge of self, and awareness of the changing contemporary world-- is more likely to fall prey to rhetoric based on xenophobic hatred or megalomaniacal delusions. Or: to general emotional instability susceptible to the deeper forms of depression and to self-destruction.
Towards a Definition of the Metacognition Alternative
The capacity to make such an assessment enables a person to consider, act on, or respond to issues that impact his or her life without with minimal distortions caused by fear or incomprehension. To take action or not to take action in the face of nearly-overwhelming change does not become a question but an option based on informed mindfulness.
How an abbreviated mind or MEC is most likely to manifest in terms of particular actions depends on the individual in question. It does not take long to determine whether an abbreviated mind or a metacognitive empowered one is at work behind the most dramatic headlines read in a newspaper or on the internet.
The number and types of disadvantages of approaching life with an abbreviated mind compared to the advantages of engaging it with metacognitive empowerment may vary from individual to individual. Below are two lists featuring five potential outcomes based on each type. These should be read as one set of examples rather than as definitive conclusive attributes:
5 Disadvantages of Sustaining an Abbreviated Mind
- Severely reduced attention span.
- Fragmented understanding of people and events.
- Diluted appreciated of real-time experiences.
- Failure to respect the culture and values of those unlike oneself.
- Failure to understand or value the uniqueness of your own being.
5 Advantages of Cultivating Metacognitive Empowered Consciousness
- Provide a more complete approach to problem-solving.
- Adapt more comfortably to expected or unexpected change.
- Create opportunities rather than chaos when confronting diversity.
- Exercise balanced responses to either failure or success.
- Experience ordinary events with a more fulfilling sense of enjoyment.
For more discussions of the costs of neglecting to develop a metacognitive empowered consciousness please check out future installments of this blog and look for news of the planned book title, The Boy with the Guerrilla Decontextualized Eyes.
NEXT: Summer 2016 Update.
Aberjhani
© Bright Skylark Literary Productions
May 2016