Why don't most people think independently?

1. From the perspective of the entire human civilization,

If everyone or most people have the ability to think independently, will the world become a better place and human civilization develop?

The answer is actually the opposite, it will hinder the development of human civilization.

Humans are social animals with high intelligence and require highly developed organization and conventions to carry out social activities. Such as production activities, political activities, social activities, etc.

In these activities, if most people have the ability to think independently, the difficulty of organizing will be unimaginable, because in a sense, independent thinking means poor compliance.

Social protocols will also need to be constructed perfectly enough to accommodate their independent thinking.

Social statutes include but are not limited to morality, law, traditional customs, hierarchy and leadership system. As an independent thinker, when faced with these statutes that limit one's activities in life, it is difficult not to think about their rationality. If they find it unreasonable in their independent thinking, they will question and seek change. Therefore, if it is impossible to build a perfect enough social protocol to cater for the ability of most people to think independently, then social contradictions will inevitably expand and erupt indefinitely.

But in fact, if the thinking consciousness of most people reaches a high enough level, they will realize that after they think independently, they can only better organize and achieve harmony and harmony only if they exercise a certain restraint on their independent thinking ability. More efficient social activities are more rational behaviors.

And everyone also needs to develop their own tolerance for imperfect protocols. To do this, they must recognize the absolute limitations of human civilization itself—that is, it is impossible to build an absolutely perfect social protocol.

So the question now is how to make most people have the ability to think independently, but let them reach a high enough level of thinking that they can restrain their independent thinking ability and tolerate the imperfect conventions that restrict themselves everywhere.

If this degree is not well grasped, the damage to human civilization will be devastating, and what will be destroyed is all human morality, culture, law, and material civilization.

2. Therefore, human beings after natural selection avoid the ability of most people to think independently in two ways.

(1) It is human nature and instinct to make conformity and being a member of the "rabble crowd" rather than independent thinking.

Humans are born with a part of rationality. But for most people, their rationality has been reduced to a vassal of emotion.

When ordinary people obtain information, they are more inclined to verify whether it conforms to their intuition, preferred answers, or an established concept. They are accustomed to pre-setting positions first, and then try to find information in the information that is similar to their own concepts and ideas. content, rather than exploring the information itself with the ability to think rationally, think deeply, and think logically. Their main purpose in this process is to verify their own correctness, to pursue emotional satisfaction and identity, rather than to know facts and truths, and to see the essence through phenomena. Therefore, when they see people with the same concept, they praise the previous sentence "three views are right" and "good taste", as if they are also praising themselves; The difference is that it is incomprehensible.

Human beings need the satisfaction of emotional value far more than we think. The emotional value here not only refers to the romantic emotional value that women in love need, but also refers to the satisfaction and identity of all emotions. Even the satisfaction of material interests is directly characterized by emotional satisfaction.

Watching short videos, exercising until sweating, power and money, feminism, patriotism, liberalism, etc., human beings are immersed in it, more or less, they are all chasing the satisfaction of a certain emotional value, pursuing a certain will and Satisfaction of desire.

At the same time, when following authority or the public, one can also gain emotional dependence, security and satisfaction.

Second, the ruling class and its ruling ideology after the emergence of classes in human civilization.

For example, in the Book of the Lord of Shang, there are five ways to control the people: one people, weak people, tired people, humiliating people, and poor people. One of the people refers to the idea of ​​unifying the people. Unified thought, in another sense, is unified ignorance.

Orwell also said in "1984" that a hierarchical society can exist only on the basis of poverty and ignorance.

In feudal society, extremely laborious production activities have stifled the independent thinking ability of most people. As for how to explain the relationship between ruling and being ruled to the remaining part of the intellectuals, rulers often use hierarchical culture, religion, and caste to suppress Ordinary people's ability to think independently, unify their thoughts, and maintain their own rule.

In a capitalist society, the capitalists, as the actual rulers of the society, reduce their thinking time and energy by increasing the working hours and work intensity of laborers, paying meager wages as much as possible, creating pacifiers to invade the minds of ordinary people, and controlling education. Brainwashing systems and ideas. The nature of the eight-hour day is a product of bourgeois compromise and maintenance of domination.

From this point of view, most people are only vassals of the ruling ideology of the ruling class.

In addition, in family education, social culture and historical lineage, most people are also affected by far-reaching and lasting, that is, most people are also vassals of family, culture and history.

3. For the current human civilization,

Independent thinking and rational logic can only be the pursuit of some people.

Only these people can appreciate the infinite charm of independent thinking.

But one more thing to know is that the charm of independent thinking does not come from thinking itself, but from truth.

Compared with the masses, independent thinkers are often closer to the truth, not because "the truth is often in the hands of a few".

Instead, as mentioned above,

Most people's rationality is the appendage of emotions.

Most people are vassals of the ruler's ruling ideas.

4. The truth, the good and the beautiful

The three oldest spiritual values ​​of human eternal pursuit. Only "true" has the most primitive charm of the universe.

Among them, regarding the distinction between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, there is no absolute unity between human beings, nor between human beings and nature.

But true and false, this statement may not be accurate enough, it should be said that it is truth and falsehood, which is different from the former two. Under certain objective conditions, truth is absolute. Therefore, in the face of truth, there is absolute unity between human beings and human beings, and absolute unity between human beings and nature.

This is the most primitive charm of the universe.