On Questioning And Not Just Accepting
On Questioning And Not Just Accepting
You must start thinking for yourself — and think critically and without discrimination against certain questions.
It is by accepting the views of others and not wanting to offend them by posing critical questions, that the world ends up being a worse place for all. The appeasement of a few leads to the discontent of the many.
You must start thinking for yourself — and think critically, and without discrimination against certain questions, if you are to reach a point of better understanding the world.
The effects of keeping quiet to please a minority, small in their thinking, is as bad as keeping quiet about the dogma’s of the masses, large in their unmovable opinions.
In both cases, it is about people forcing their views on others without any consideration that their views might be biased, without proof, or simply wrong when considering the facts.
As we have seen in times of elections, many people aren’t concerned about the facts, there are underlying issues at play — power, money, hatred, religion etc. — issues less concerned with truth and much more driven by emotion.
If you take religion as an example — how many Christians and Jews know the history of the bible, who wrote which book, when was it written, why was it written, is there any historical and archaeological proof that e.g. some of these kings ever existed, how much information was lost over time, and, are the writings only interpretations of fragments found?
None of this aims to turn you into an atheist; your beliefs are your beliefs, but how much interest have you taken in your beliefs? How many questions have you asked, and how deep have you delved into the history and the facts of your beliefs?
When it comes to politics, our understanding is not much better. Do you know what a liberal is, or a conservative, or a fundamentalist, and what is the centre even today? Do you understand the many policies of your political party, or do you vote along the cult of personality and emotional uproar?
We rail against the use of fossil fuels, not understanding that we use chemicals from fossil fuels in everyday medication and that we make a lot of equipment in hospitals from processes using fossil fuels.
We tout capitalism as the best system, yet many people have no idea what capitalism is and how it has evolved. Can we still call our current economic system capitalism? To what extent has Capitalism been morphed into a new form of economics?
We jump with indignation when someone reads Karl Marx’s “Capital” — forgetting the book is titled “Capital” and not “Communism” or “Socialism” — it is an analysis of the concept of capitalism — a book worth reading and understanding.
We will all do well to ask better questions, to not be afraid of asking questions that might offend the politically correct, which is appeasement.
By us not questioning with the vision of a better world in mind, driven by better understanding, we will keep accepting the views of the few on the fringes. Left or Right fringes are equally bad and should be examined with relentless questioning.
There will always be those actors who know all the above and will use it to their benefit, whether it is for power, money, greed, influence, etc.
If you do not stop, think, and ask critical questions without apology, you will flow in the river of someone else’s thoughts and views.
For you to question is the start of your journey. The questions you ask should lead you to sources of knowledge, to a critical evaluation, and to a more profound understanding of the subject you are dealing with.
As a minimum, you should realise, as we all do, that we do not know as much as we think we do, and we will do well to consider other points of view. This realisation on its own is worth the effort.
May we all open our minds a bit going into the new year and consider, for a moment, that our views might be distorted and could use the journey of questioning, learning, and thinking.