“Either you think—or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
If you’ve become accustomed to reading these bits of wisdom, congratulations. Count yourself in the minority. You’re a thinker, one who is active in finding the truth. We share company in this minority; we are the seekers.
The world’s thinkers are dwindling at a rapid rate because it’s been monetized. Entire industries have been built around selling you ways to think, and they have great products and services.
It’s much easier to buy into a philosophy, or a news channel, or a religion, or a social media influencer to think for you; it’s how the majority does their thinking, by proxy. But why do people outsource their thinking? There are two reasons: thinking for oneself is difficult, and being seen as different seems dangerous.
In today’s world of ever-expanding information, it is much easier to absorb soundbites from a talking head and adopt them wholesale than it is to parse the mountains of information, sort it, and try to make meaning from it.
“A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.”1
Replace ‘doctrine’ with CNN, Trump, Buddhism, or liberalism, and you’ve got yourself a ready-made way to interact with life, minus one of the greatest powers you’ve been given, your intellect.
When one replaces their thinking with a ready-made system, they can move on to fitting in and assimilating into the crowd. People do this so they won’t be judged or thought of as different. When people join the herd, they surrender their uniqueness, the only differentiator they can be confident no one else on the planet has.
When we break these ideas apart and look at them logically, it is easy to see how people slip into obscurity and feel unseen. This happens by relegating our thinking and uniqueness to someone who was never meant to have it. But what we realize is that living in obscurity and feeling unseen can feel very painful.
The great news is we can change course at any point. Someone once said, " If you get on the wrong train, be sure to get off at the first stop. The longer you stay, the more the return trip is going to cost you.” And, this person wasn’t talking about trains.
If we embrace our natural giftings, our ability to reason, and our uniqueness, the things that set us apart, we can be the individuals we were meant to become. This is the only route to living a life of significance.
Be curious, a thinking person, and never be afraid of embracing who you really are. It’s your superpower, your differentiator, your way out of obscurity, your path to being seen.
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” Joseph Campbell
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