The Inquiring Mind

Many people think they know something because they’ve always done what somebody else has told them to do -- as though the other really knew; it may be about law, medicine, politics, moral and even intensely personal matters -- as though those they obey had carte blanche authority over those matters and knowledge -- and not that those at the cutting edge of understanding fully acknowledge, that what they know or think they know, is the best they’ve come up with so far -- and seems to explain most things satisfactorily, but their knowledge (information) is imperfect. So one is seeking the best among the many alternative explanations -- and choosing what makes the best sense to them.

While the generalization may seem true and plausible, when one takes the understanding to the extremes of rigorous testing and examination, it is often revealed that what was widely believed to be true at that time, it turned out, was not -- and those realizations changed the course of one’s life, and on a larger scale, history and progress, as when a few tested whether all that could be seen, was all there was in the world. That was what all the "authorities" of their time agreed upon as the truth -- and in past times, those who would not agree, could be burned at the stake or tortured until they agreed to accept the authority of the self-appointed few.

There are still such impulses in 21st century mainstream culture -- with the added complication of those intermediaries who further interpret the “truth, according to their biases (or limited understanding) -- because these intermediaries are insistent that they have to filter the truth, and not that they need to get out of the way, and let the message be transmitted intact. Such intermediaries are in the habit of selecting parts of an understanding to suit their own arbitrary tastes -- instead of allowing the author’s original observation to go through undistorted. Invariably, one selects only those snippets of plausibility that supports what they already know, and omits everything that might be a challenge to their old perspective -- and so nothing new can ever come to light.

History, they will insist, only repeats itself -- and not that it is always evolving and progressing; yet they will fancy themselves as “progressives,” because that sounds a whole lot more impressive than, “retarded.” Their capacity for self-deception and self-delusion are unlimited in this way. In their minds, they are always winning the imaginary wars and competitions they have against everybody else -- as the supreme intelligence in the universe.

That was the epitome of the early 20th century personality -- raised in the Depression and never having escaped that mentality/experience. Some did though, proving it was entirely possible to overcome such conditioning in hardship.

But the qualities that might have conveyed survival value under those conditions, may be distinct disadvantages in different realities and possibilities. What is appropriate for one set of conditions may be entirely dysfunctional under another. The inquiring mind seeks to find out if what it thinks to be true is actually in fact true -- rather than merely imposing his knowledge on those he thinks may not have heard of what he thinks is all there is to know.