Fresh thinking needs to start — right at the top

PROFESSOR Philip Hill hits the spot (ODT, 10.5.21).

He urged graduates to ‘‘stop and think’’. I could not agree more.

Graduates are facing an increasing host of manmade extinction threats such as overpopulation, dwindling resources, climate change, and nuclear warfare.

Those threats show that humanity suffers from systemic cognitive failure. No surprise, the educational way of Greek thinking is about 2500 years old and has never been updated.

Cognitive improvement is inhibited by educational conditioning, institutionalisation, group think, and cognitive dissonance.

To advise students to start thinking after they have finished their study would be hilarious if it would not be the harsh reality. They were never taught adequately how to think.

It is not the students who should ‘‘stop and think’’, but the academics and universities.

Dunedin North

Maori Party leader

RAWIRI Waititi’s behaviour in Parliament was a disgrace (ODT, 13.5.21).

He acted like a little boy who didn’t get his lollipop, throwing a temper tantrum and thoroughly disrespecting the Chamber, ending in a childish rant. He may have called it a haka but it was more like infantile behaviour.

The leader of the Opposition has every right to ask why the Crown is trying to separate New Zealand into two parts.

Both Maori and all other New Zealanders are partners under the Crown. This is the point Judith Collins was trying to make. We are all New Zealanders, under the Crown.

Waititi was complaining about Collins being racist. He is acting in a more racist manner than anyone else in Parliament as seen by his behaviour and words.

Elected representatives should have more respect for the Chamber and for their fellow parliamentarians.

Mosgiel ...................................

BIBLE READING: A highway shall be there and it shall be called the Holy Way. — Isaiah 35.8.