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I don’t remember asking others to think for me

A few days ago I turned on my car radio to listen to the news at noon. Immediately after the news segment, a well-known nationally syndicated talk-show host began his daily program about politics. Instead of his usual introduction, this time he said something like, “You don’t need to think. I will think for you.”

I don’t remember ever hearing before such a clear invitation to not thinking or asking anybody else to think for me. Perhaps thinking for yourself has been forbidden. I don’t know. However, I have to concede that thinking (the activity that makes us humans) is now extremely devaluated.

The same talk-show host who said there is no need for us to think for ourselves because he can’t do it for us then began a monologue when he spoke about the economy, the national budget, the national deficit, wars and military interventions, Congress, and the future of the country.

In my opinion (but I don’t have a national daily platform to share it), any and all of those issues deserve careful analysis, that is, careful thinking, if we want to find a solution. In the opinion of the famous talk-show host, we don’t need to think because he already did for us.

It is true that thinking is becoming increasingly difficult, due in great part to the fragmentation of the social discourse around us. There is no way anybody can developed an informed opinion about anything based on an interview that lasts only a few seconds. Even worst, the answers on those TV interviews are usually irrelevant to the issue and unconnected with the question.

And when we watch TV, we are constantly changing channels. As a result, we only hear and see fragmentary information, a surreal, unique, and meaningless mix of parts of programs and commercials.

That means we are surrounded by ultra-fragmented and de-contextualized information being generated and broadcast at a mind-boggling speed. We call it “entertainment.” And we confuse the ability of repeating parts of that information with thinking.

Serious thinking is difficult, requiring discipline the proper environment, something we lack in our society. However, those ideal conditions only existed a few times, if ever, in the history of humanity.

Thinking was, is, and will be difficult, because it includes self-analysis and analysis of the circumstances, as well as finding meanings and connections, and extending oneself from the past to the future. None of those elements can be accomplish in an environment when we are constantly bombarded by distractions inviting us to think only about the present.

I think the reason why a well-known and influential talk-show host can openly suggest we shouldn’t have our own thoughts is because we don’t have our own thoughts anymore. If we were thinking, such a suggestion will be ridiculous and offensive.

When politicians act only to keep their votes, when preachers preach only to keep their donations, when teachers teach only to keep their jobs, the un-thinking already won and we can only accept the consequences.

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