Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Critical Thinking and the Casey Anthony Trial

                                          Critical Thinking and the Casey Anthony Trial
by Peter Hyatt







"Even by his actions a youth maketh himself known, Whether his work be pure or upright"    Proverbs 20:11


Who is this young woman who has beguiled a nation?  What is it about her that caused Lee Anthony's fiance, Mallory, to call her an 'amazing' mother, which the jury foreman is now using as an excuse for his 'shocking' verdict that has enabled him to reach a level of 'honor' he has only dreamed of?
Casey Anthony an "amazing" mother, said under an oath before God?  Let's examine this. 
I once listened with sadness as a radio commentator said, "I'm not buying that.  No, I don't think that at all.  George and Cindy loved Caylee."


His ignorance of what love is, and what love does based upon what love is, was astonishing.  


Statement Analysis has a sad element to it.  Anyone who discerns truth from deception knows this to be true, whether it be via verbal analysis, body language, or the rare ability to understand and grasp the micro expression of the face. 
Our nation has lost its ability to think critically.  The disparity between technological advances and the average student is wider now than any time in modern history.  We would have to go back to lines of demarcation between classes of people educated and uneducated.  The standards for education have dropped dramatically. 
I remember being but 13 years old and having taken testing for admission to a preparatory high school.  The instructor said that I needed to prepare myself for a minimum of 2 hours of homework per night, Latin, Logic, and a change in the passing standard from 65% to 70%.   He warned that school would be a vigorous exercise of the mind that my public school may not have prepared me for.  I would be expected to give long mnemonic recitations from classical literature, just as an stretching of the mind.  Tuition would be expensive, and I would have to work just to help make its monthly payments.  


Today, raising the passing standard from 65% to 70% would be considered an unfair intrusion into the realm of the student's self esteem, and unjustly discriminate against those who will then feel categorized or labelled by such a number.  This is why some schools no longer allow the childhood game of "tag" to be played; as it unjustly, or so we are told, singles out one student for undue negative attention.  
Indeed. 
If you have read the statements of the jurors, you have seen an inability (or unwillingness) to follow an argument, or to think critically. Whether it is one juror's inability to understand the judge's instructions, or the jury foreman's obvious deception in motive, we may conclude that ignorance and the love of money is a terrible combination. 
What was it that caused Mallory to call Casey Anthony an "amazing" mother?  Or, a greater question in need of an answer:
Why would this testimony even matter in light of evidence?
So it is that society, in greater and greater number, thinks emotionally rather than critically. 
Discrimination is a 'bad' word and 'tolerance' is a god to be bowed before.  We need these in the simplest forms because any compound idea will be too much to bear. 
We tolerate the perjury under oath, unpunished, so that we might discriminate against a murder victim.  
The Anthonys loved Caylee?
Not a bit.
Casey was an "amazing" mother?
Not a bit. 
What was "amazing" about Casey Anthony was not her lying (it was plainly discerned, howbeit bold) but her ability to overcome all maternal instinct to snuff out the life of a child at the cutest of ages.  
The love of the Anthonys?
What is love?  What does love mean?  
Must we think critically about love in order to understand it?  We must. 
Mallory's ignorance is astonishing.  Casey herself acknowledged what a rotten mother she was; rotten enough to the core, to have no restraint upon her evil intentions.  For Mallory, showing up at a home where Casey did not work to support Caylee, did not buy clothing, food, diapers, bottles, pacifier, hair brushes, shoes...but, could roll on the floor laughing for a five minute video is equated with "amazing" motherhood in ignorant Mallory's mind.


As for the radio commentator "not buying" the Anthony's lack of love for Caylee?  He has been educated by television.  What did he learn?


If you grew up on television, you know:


The good guys wear white hats, and the bad guys where black hats.  
The poor kid always makes out at Christmas.
People change, especially when background music hits crescendo.  


And that when it comes to life, love and all the myriad choices we face, a 15 year old girl knows far more about everything, just by following her emotions or hormones, than her stodgy, coldly logical, 40 year old father, who appears powerless to save her from a lifetime of hurt from her poor choices.   


Childhood ignorance, by virtue of age, is, somehow, desirable to Hollywood.  Wisdom that may flow from the gray head is outdated, and misses the 'heart' of the matter.  


These are the lessons of television, and not of wisdom. 


A child is not a novelty.  


The Anthonys turned a blind eye to the child.  She was, for almost 2 years, being watched by a 'nanny' of whom the Anthonys never once met, spoke to, did a background check on, or gave even the slightest self inconvenience of assuring that their only grandchild was in safe hands.  As said many times, most people do more to make sure the family cat is safe at a kennel than these people did for the granddaughter. The jury foreman was bothered by George not questioning Casey, while ignoring the fact that the Anthonys did not question, for 2 years, into the 'nanny' who was watching their grandchild?  


Yet, they 'loved' her?


It reminds me of the woman with two daughters who lets a predator with a long record move into the home.  When shown his criminal history of sexual assaults against young girls she says "I look into his eyes and just know he didn't do it. It was all that b**** ex wife of his!"


She thinks with her heart, just as television taught her. She exposes her children to risk; risk of harm that could last a lifetime if that predator has but a few minutes alone with the child. 


Our experts ridiculed boundary setting, discipline of children, and phonics.  Anything that even resembled truth was called "judgmental" and discernment of any kind became anathema.  Tolerance was decried as the almighty, but quickly showed acute intolerance to any who disagreed. 


Statement Analysis brings much sadness to the equation.  It shatters, so often, the television lie of the happy ending, the good marriage, the job well done, the truth under oath.  It breaks hero-worship into splintered pieces on the floor.  "Don't tell me the analysis of Lance Armstrong's denials of doping" a young man said to me, "I so looked up to him!"


I understand. 


Mallory saw sentimentality and called it "amazing" which apparently had an impact with jurors unable or unwilling to think critically.  What is Mallory's reference point for parenting?  Or, was Mallory just being an Anthony, willing to lie, in a rush to join the family who soils and stains the memory of Caylee.  Like lions upon a prey, they all seemed insatiable in their desire to insult Caylee under the guise of 'saving' Casey.  


The radio commentator "knew" that George and Cindy, the most abdicating and neglectful of grandparents imaginable, who not only turned their backs, willfully, upon a child in desperate need of protection, but who then trampled her memory with perjury, loved their grandchild; he just "knew" they loved their grandchild, and had his reason, too.  He could "see" it when he was seated near them, as if, somehow, his discernment was beyond the senses of a mere mortal. 


Love, undefined, is whatever one wants it to be in the moment.  Casey Anthony did not "love" Caylee, nor did George, Cindy, and Lee.  They may have had emotional moments but they did not "love" Caylee.


Love seeks the highest good of its object. 


Love sacrifices and lays down its life for the benefit of its object.   Love fulfills its duties and obligations, sets boundaries which may be unpleasant at first, and protects and nurtures. 


Caylee got lots of hugs, at least for the video camera.  I have watched sexually abused children hug and fuss with the very perpetrator of their insidious abuse.  I do not define love as a moment of emotion.  


Caylee was not loved by Casey, who murdered her, or George, Cindy and Lee Anthony, who contributed to her murder, and then brought final insult to her memory. 


I may see love for Caylee, however, visibly in the actions of an angry nation of people; people willing to boycott all things Anthony, seeking to, in the name of dignity for Caylee, deprive them of their blood lust profit.  I see love in the actions of those who searched for her, even though she was never missing.  I see love in the actions of the prosecutors, who presented a most thorough and powerful case, proving to the uttermost, that Caylee's life was destroyed by her own mother.  I see love in the public who now seeks to enact laws that will help catch punish killers by forcing them to call 911, under penalty, increasing the timeliness of response by investigators.  


It has been strangers who have loved Caylee, and continue to, by attempting to honor her memory by reversing the insult that the Anthonys have heaped upon the defenseless child with their lies. 


I see a heart shaped sticker, cruelly placed over her mouth, silencing her.  That heart shaped sticker is not placed their by Casey's hands alone, but with the help of George, Cindy, and Lee.  They, by their perjury in court and by their lies to police and public, have assisted Casey in silencing Caylee's call for justice. She, being dead, speaketh still, and although this family of mercenary ghouls have conspired together to silence her cries, it is the public which is now fighting back. 


Boycott the shows that benefit the Anthonys. 

Boycott any network that has their lying shills on it. 

Shun, financially, any association that benefits the liars, even if it means boycotting Disney.  In the name of family vacation, instead of lining the pockets of a company willing to give a fortune to Casey Anthony for pictures, take the children to museums, art exhibitions, memorials, and...

to libraries. 

Boycott the ignorance and 'reality tv show' greed that has motivated jurors into "shocking" the nation with their injustice. 


This is the single best way to love Caylee:  honor her memory with righteous shunning of any one, or any organization, that benefits those who sought to silence Caylee's cry for justice. 


Next:  Casey Anthony as a child.  

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