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So, after reading this, I thought "I'll go write about this, and how I am inspired". I ended up rambling about the thoughts of the human mind, but I hope someone will appreciate it.
I think I have been changed.
When I go to sleep, I no longer dream of what the impossible, I dream of the materialistic realm in which we live. The possible. When I imagine, I don’t see the majestical world that is available only in the mind, and fantasy. I see the tangible world. What I can hear, what I can feel, and what I can see. The goals I have are there, and visualized, but the ideas of a higher and unrealistic place have almost been eliminated from my mind.
I think my mind has been changed, by centralized education.
In a formal school setting, the pupil is taught to think in a certain way, not because of any reason other than the teacher says so. The teacher teaches the student not how to think, but how to answer correctly. As a population, we are taught to be afraid of being wrong. Being wrong is a scandalous affair, and children are being taught to avoid it at all costs. To answer something incorrectly, is as if one had gotten a tattoo that reads “I am illiterate and dumb”, it is regarded with scorn and distaste. To avoid this, as children are taught, they memorize rather than learn. Rather than explain, they regurgitate information, as the teacher wants. Not because they have pondered it, and understood the concept, but because the instructor at the front of the room says “this is correct, please learn it, and I will test you on it later, and penalize you for thinking any differently”. As a result, there is now a society of simply linear thinkers.
Linear thinkers. Never expanding on what is necessary, and never understanding. Just memorizing what it is that is required, but never grasping the full concept.
Linear thinkers prefer linear answers. These answers are simple and mono-directional. They are easy to explain and understand. They don’t have room for argument, or discrepancies. They are either right or wrong - black or white. Answers with an arguing point are scary and daunting. In a world full of linear thinkers, yes or no is an acceptable answer, and explanations are not required. These questions are softballs, and allow them to stay within their realm of thinking, in which they feel safe in. Linear thinkers stay on the surface, much like a canoe stays on the surface of the water.
Don’t be a canoe, be a submarine.
The human experience, arguably, can be described as a series of failures and successes, pondering and learning experiences. If one is a canoe, they never experience the full feeling of life. One of the most thrilling, scary and life-filling times of my life have been while thinking about the unanswerable questions that exist in this universe we as people reside in. Life as we know it is scary and cannot be grasped until one looks at it through the rear view mirror. To fully participate in the human experience, one must contemplate all answers, all questions, all perspectives, and all thoughts.
Timid people take answers, and don’t take charge. Go forth and think.
