Prologue
Most(All) of my abstract posts in this blog have not been the thoroughly researched kind. There are practical reasons for that - I have a day job and absolutely no time for research on most of the deep topics I try and talk about. Blogging is a weekend indulgence for me - hopefully I will be able to organize myself better in future to do some look up. However at this point in time - most of these posts are driven a lot by instinct - fueled by personal experience and observation of people around me.
I subscribe to the theory of the grand narrative - Outside of the sciences, every other knowledge discipline is 'man made' and is susceptible for manipulation. So we've been intravenously fed people, events and opinions from the day we are born in a manner that is almost nefarious because of it's subtlety. To boot, we've had families, friends and acquaintances sprinkle their own lines into the narrative. Simply put, our thoughts do not originate from within us like we lead ourselves to believe. The originate from high school textbooks, erudite speeches, bland talks, an opinionated uncle in the family, corporate cliches, movies, bad fiction, good facts, media (both the social and the anti-social kind - if you get my drift..) etc. etc.
There are delusions of independent thought or more precisely thinkers - the most prominent one's being the contrarians. We sometimes fancy ourselves intellectual by going the diagonal opposite way of the conventional view and pat our backs when proved right. This is nothing but a glorified - you miss, I hit - view that the changing context substantiates. So, if the conventional view held good today, the contrarian will do so tomorrow - in a matter of speaking. That isn't independent thinking, that is hedged thinking. It may be smart, but it isn't intellectual!
I firmly believe that around 90% of us are born to be led - in that we are not meant to be independent thinkers - we will never want to or need to!The prime movers of the world are a smaller 5% - the only independent thought that they subscribe to is that of a personal agenda - to run the world or a good part of it. And they run it safe in the knowledge of the above percentages.
The remaining 5% are probably split between the confused and the genuine independent thinkers. It's no wonder that the Shankaracharya's, Buddha's and the Vivekananda's are once in a multi generation personalities!
So how does one separate the true intellectual from the psuedo's ?
The best way is to try and trace back to a motive in the real world. If there is no such thing, there's a good chance that we have a real mccoy
I genuinely believe that the world would be a much better place if it was full of independent thinkers. Contrary to a more chaotic environment - it would groove to the tunes of a very counter intuitive symphony. Because it would be a world that recognizes the inherent futility in material overdraft, negative sentiments and most importantly influencing and converting others.
In a seemingly strange way, we would tend to agree more often if we thought independently!
Most(All) of my abstract posts in this blog have not been the thoroughly researched kind. There are practical reasons for that - I have a day job and absolutely no time for research on most of the deep topics I try and talk about. Blogging is a weekend indulgence for me - hopefully I will be able to organize myself better in future to do some look up. However at this point in time - most of these posts are driven a lot by instinct - fueled by personal experience and observation of people around me.
I subscribe to the theory of the grand narrative - Outside of the sciences, every other knowledge discipline is 'man made' and is susceptible for manipulation. So we've been intravenously fed people, events and opinions from the day we are born in a manner that is almost nefarious because of it's subtlety. To boot, we've had families, friends and acquaintances sprinkle their own lines into the narrative. Simply put, our thoughts do not originate from within us like we lead ourselves to believe. The originate from high school textbooks, erudite speeches, bland talks, an opinionated uncle in the family, corporate cliches, movies, bad fiction, good facts, media (both the social and the anti-social kind - if you get my drift..) etc. etc.
There are delusions of independent thought or more precisely thinkers - the most prominent one's being the contrarians. We sometimes fancy ourselves intellectual by going the diagonal opposite way of the conventional view and pat our backs when proved right. This is nothing but a glorified - you miss, I hit - view that the changing context substantiates. So, if the conventional view held good today, the contrarian will do so tomorrow - in a matter of speaking. That isn't independent thinking, that is hedged thinking. It may be smart, but it isn't intellectual!
I firmly believe that around 90% of us are born to be led - in that we are not meant to be independent thinkers - we will never want to or need to!The prime movers of the world are a smaller 5% - the only independent thought that they subscribe to is that of a personal agenda - to run the world or a good part of it. And they run it safe in the knowledge of the above percentages.
The remaining 5% are probably split between the confused and the genuine independent thinkers. It's no wonder that the Shankaracharya's, Buddha's and the Vivekananda's are once in a multi generation personalities!
So how does one separate the true intellectual from the psuedo's ?
The best way is to try and trace back to a motive in the real world. If there is no such thing, there's a good chance that we have a real mccoy
I genuinely believe that the world would be a much better place if it was full of independent thinkers. Contrary to a more chaotic environment - it would groove to the tunes of a very counter intuitive symphony. Because it would be a world that recognizes the inherent futility in material overdraft, negative sentiments and most importantly influencing and converting others.
In a seemingly strange way, we would tend to agree more often if we thought independently!
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