Since the concept of lateral thinking has been hijacked by an ideologically driven movement, it has been difficult to move away from the negative connotations of the term. Lateral thinking used to have a consistently positive connotation, but is now mostly used in the mainstream media to describe the lateral thinkers.

Thinking differently, as lateral thinking should be called today in order to stand out from its new connotation and at the same time to be widely accessible and which also sounds pleasantly different from lateral thinking, is a way of looking at the world in a refreshingly different way – necessarily different.

Science can complement a different way of thinking, but it cannot replace it. This has to do with the fact that the sciences are collections of methods, procedures and building blocks of knowledge that secure facts and knowledge, but do not produce them directly. The creative process of thinking differently can be pursued separately from the sciences, or it can be embedded in their methods and procedures.

Thinking differently without science can lead to art and culture or to crude world views, ideologies and conspiracy theories. Thinking differently, supported by science, usually brings new insights, understanding and progress.

Of course, this presupposes that the different thinking is free of prejudices, mental blocks and false knowledge. If the basis of the basic consideration is nonsense, then the conclusions will only be “quackery”.

Freedom, being free and thinking freely, is often postulated, but is almost never a reality and is thwarted by many types of dependency. More on this in another article on this blog.

Knowledge of the world is the basic prerequisite for universal education, which is what makes an adequate human existence possible in the first place. Therefore, all world knowledge should be available to everyone in all parts of the world free of charge. However, this is still not the case in the 21st century A.D.[1].

Some sources of knowledge, such as the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia, are only accessible with technical infrastructure, and this is either cost-intensive or only accessible free of charge on loan in special locations, others are subject to a charge and sometimes expensive, such as academic books, whereby libraries are very often accessible free of charge or at minimal cost, but the effort to borrow the desired work is sometimes very time-consuming.

Irrespective of the effort involved in accessing knowledge, the world’s knowledge is fragmented, difficult to search and filter and at the same time incomplete, sometimes erratic and some areas cannot be understood without sufficient prior knowledge.

In order to educate responsible citizens, it is essential to make all knowledge accessible to everyone as cost-effectively as possible. Otherwise, knowledge is reserved for a privileged class that can use it to abuse power.

Knowledge must be freely accessible, free of charge and freely expandable, e.g. under the free document license

[1] Academia, Structurally Fxxked Up

Order is half the battle, as the saying goes. Organization is the whole of life, is the doctrine of current politics.

• Regulatory frenzy
• Overregulation
• Minor case specifications
• Individual justice
• Sanction allocation

All this and much more is an active part of the bureaucracy of a united Europe. If Europe were actually united as a result, this would be a small price to pay. Only the price is paid without receiving anything in return.

This does not make Europe more united, more understanding or even more united. It is only the rules that apply in all EU states, which the countries must adhere to, that provide a similar, sometimes meaningless, legal framework. But that doesn’t make for tolerant and positive coexistence.

Each country suffers individually from the excessive bureaucratic structures that apply to all of them. This shows once again that “more of the same” does not necessarily lead to a solution to the problem, and is in fact the problem.

Structures should be made for the people and simplify and improve cooperation and be designed in a way that benefits the majority. Fundamental structural reforms are needed here, even a new beginning, so that the achievements of the modern world can be used safely and helpfully.

Individual justice is an illusion whose absence must not lead to arbitrariness, but there must be ways that are understandable, acceptable and practicable for all members of society and yet are not “just” for everyone.