Close your eyes and imagine a world where the leaders are keeping the public from rebelling by telling them not to question authority but to simply do what they're told. Now open them, the year is 1784 and you are on the verge of the enlightenment. Wait, hold on, this is actually George Orwell's book 1984, or is this Rome? Maybe it's the year 2019? In fact its all of them.
This idea that those who don't think will be thought for is a popular theme in history and Kant realizes this long before the trend has started. "If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscious for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself". This mentality is dangerously close to that of most if not all dystopian literature and several times in history. Anytime someone is given the ability to think for someone else they teach them that thinking alone is far too dangerous which scares them from doing it at all. "Actually, however, this danger is not so great, for by falling a few times they would finally learn to walk alone". While this is evident in history the same could also be said for school. Students go several years in school cheating or slacking off because they have someone else think for them or because they believe that they have already met their full potential. Society tells them that college is hard, expensive and unnecessary for a good job. So the student believes what they are told and never realize that they can achieve so much more.
People these days are so concerned about hurting feelings or avoiding situations that they stunt their growth and never achieve their full potential. Don't let that be you. Students should push through pain and hardship because there is no other way to grow. Rockets expel 7.2 million pounds of thrust to push through the earth's atmosphere but once they do they're in space. So the ground may be nice but shoot for the stars where there are so many more possibilities. "Sapere aude! "Have courage to use your own reason!"- that is the motto of the enlightenment".
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This idea that those who don't think will be thought for is a popular theme in history and Kant realizes this long before the trend has started. "If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscious for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself". This mentality is dangerously close to that of most if not all dystopian literature and several times in history. Anytime someone is given the ability to think for someone else they teach them that thinking alone is far too dangerous which scares them from doing it at all. "Actually, however, this danger is not so great, for by falling a few times they would finally learn to walk alone". While this is evident in history the same could also be said for school. Students go several years in school cheating or slacking off because they have someone else think for them or because they believe that they have already met their full potential. Society tells them that college is hard, expensive and unnecessary for a good job. So the student believes what they are told and never realize that they can achieve so much more.
People these days are so concerned about hurting feelings or avoiding situations that they stunt their growth and never achieve their full potential. Don't let that be you. Students should push through pain and hardship because there is no other way to grow. Rockets expel 7.2 million pounds of thrust to push through the earth's atmosphere but once they do they're in space. So the ground may be nice but shoot for the stars where there are so many more possibilities. "Sapere aude! "Have courage to use your own reason!"- that is the motto of the enlightenment".
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Why is this theme of following the crowd and not thinking for yourself so cyclically pushed upon society? Who does the pushing? Is it media, TV producers, politicians? Or is it simply the default state for unenlightened mankind? With all that being unanswered (because I do not know the answers) I appreciate your thoughtfulness in comparing different time periods as that was not something I had considered before. I also really liked your closing statement about rockets, that actually fit really well with the rest of your writing.