It is unfortunate that society often confuses information with intelligence. From a young age, we are taught that our opinions are inadequate and need reforming, whether by society, our parents, the educational system, or religious institutions. Our own voice and intelligence, which are built on common sense and critical thinking, and our innate curiosity that leads us to trial-and-error and keeps us in a beginner’s mind, are often belittled and suppressed. The rigid hand of the logical mind equates education with systematic memorization that preserves the status quo, rather than encouraging the critical thinking that would challenge it and lead to progressive evolution and advancement over time.
In meditative silence, one may find their critical thinking ability to be far more profound, piercing, and perceptive than the vast majority of content found on the Internet. It is equally unfortunate that people have been misled regarding the intention of the content they consume. It is a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless, that information, especially on public forums like social media or television, has often been used as a tool for the powerful to misinform the public, overwhelm them with excessive misinformation or outright disinformation, or entertain them into idleness, leaving the public none the wiser. In many cases, the dissemination of this information is almost explicitly a form of propaganda, bordering on the dogmatism found in fundamentalist religious belief systems. Its purpose is not to inform but rather to stir up and play upon our baser emotions of fear, resentment, greed, and worst of all, judgment.
Society has habitually confused information with intelligence. The sheer quantity of information that the average person is bombarded with renders incapable our critical thinking faculties and incapable to form their own conclusions. Is it any wonder then that the public needs to form their opinion based on talking heads, pundits, and 30-second sound bites from campaign commercials?
But it always takes two to tango. There is a demand for others to think for them (as we see in the media) and to act for them (as we see in government) because, bluntly, from the individual to the collective level, we have chosen not to take full accountability and responsibility for our actions. If we had, it would be inconceivable for us to resort to sensationalist news on the Internet as a source of truth to base our opinions upon. I further believe that if we continue to shirk our individual responsibility and duty to think for ourselves and instead resort to blind belief, we are no better, except in degree, than various fundamentalists around the world.
If I am to think for myself, come to my own conclusions, and act upon those conclusions, then I must take responsibility for the consequences of my actions. It’s possible that I might make a mistake and fear the blame that could follow. If I’m afraid of making a mistake, doesn’t it make sense to avoid thinking for myself? By doing so, I don’t have to form my own conclusions and can instead adopt someone else’s beliefs or an established belief system. If things go wrong, it’s not my fault but the fault of the institution or individual I believed in.
As a society, we are often reluctant to make decisions for ourselves and take risks if things go wrong. Consequently, the desire to question is in short supply. Among those who do wish to question, very few have the courage to act on it. The more we choose not to act, the more our society moves towards a form of collective cowardice.
Trump’s rhetoric, the intention behind his words, is to encourage his base to blindly believe in his promises. As a result, his supporters are walking blindfolded, not knowing if they are heading toward firm ground or quicksand. When many people come together, unwilling to take true accountability and responsibility for their beliefs and actions, and have a medium like social media to voice their opinions, we cannot expect real intelligence to emerge. Instead, we see a simple regurgitation of a belief system that someone else has promoted and that has been accepted and adopted as one’s own.
In many ways, the vast majority of people hardly have a mind of their own, finding it easier to accept an existing, established belief system without question. The adoption of these beliefs penetrates so deeply that individuals act as if they are run by software, like programmed automatons. This is the collective mind, if you will, that is at the very root of the social media. As a result, we have become a community of cowards.
Original thought and true intelligence inherently require simplicity and the courage to think independently. The purpose of these words is to ignite the dormant spark of intelligence within each of us, compelling us to think for ourselves without fear of what others may want us to think.
I have always admired the Greek philosophers of antiquity for their clear, intelligent, and fearless critical thinking. Their courage to think independently and their brazen disregard for the established norms of their time is truly remarkable. It must have taken immense fearlessness to think so far outside the communal box they lived in. Athens, surrounded by warring nation-states especially authoritarian regimes like Sparta, was an unlikely birthplace for democratic ideas. Yet, several centuries before Christ, these philosophers laid the foundations for a democratic society—a true wonder, given the lack of historical precedent at the time.
We too, in today’s world, must strive to emulate the Greek philosophers. We need to learn to think independently and fearlessly in our pursuit of truth and precision. We must exercise the innate intelligence within us that can discern the material from the immaterial, the true from the false, and then have the courage to act upon our convictions. Thomas Paine might call this ability Common Sense.
From the individual to the collective level, we must strive to think critically for ourselves and come to our own conclusions, rather than adopting conveniently-packaged belief systems promoted by society or published on the social media. For those who have not yet embraced this practice, there will be mistakes along the way, and encountering them can be unpleasant. However, like a muscle that strengthens with continued use, the skill of clear, intelligent, critical thinking becomes stronger the more we exercise our faculties.
It is crucial for us to engage in the enduring process of trial and error, to reach our own conclusions, and to develop convictions with our own minds. Moreover, we must not mistake information for knowledge; instead, we should reflect deeply on that information to discern clearly whether it is material or immaterial, true or false. By doing so, we can resist the powerful elite’s attempts to bombard us with misinformation and avoid becoming slaves to it. They may try to mollify us with entertainment, but we will recognize it for what it is—a diversion, as Shakespeare eloquently put it, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
We must acknowledge that while the Internet has become a synthesis for the collective mind of humankind, it has also largely become a tool for the elite to spread misinformation and trap us in a state of fear. We must see the danger in how this tool is being used against us with malicious intent. However, I do not blame the powerful elite entirely. By refusing to think and reflect for ourselves, we have willingly become pawns in this game and have willfully dumbed down our intelligence because it’s easy. Therefore, we bear significant responsibility for allowing the elite to control us, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
The most poignant fact is this: It is not truly the elite’s fault that they are suppressing and misinforming the public; it is our fault for allowing ourselves to be suppressed and misled.
The consequences of our actions are fundamental. If we choose to let others subdue our voices and adopt opinions conveniently packaged by pundits and thinkers on the Internet, then we should not be surprised if we find ourselves living in a society where an elite takes advantage of our docility, creating a vastly unequal and unjust society.