Thinking and questioning are not the same thing.
The world, these days, is full of questioners. “I question white privilege”. “I question the benefits of capitalism”. They ASSUME they are thinkers, but upon quizzing them, you soon discover there hasn’t been any thought at all. They’re just mouthing what they’re trained to hear.
Real questioning only comes as a result of thinking. When you have thought deeply and extensively — yet also in a reality-oriented way — about things worth questioning, then you have earned the intellectual right to question. But only then.
I am sick of questioners who think they are thinkers. I am tired of people who question for the sake of questioning. Just because something is old does not make it right; likewise, just because something is new does not make it right. It’s right because it’s right — whether everyone sees it or nobody else sees it. The challenge of thinking involves discovering and figuring out what’s objectively right, and why.
Today’s questioners are boring. Yet they’re elevated to the status of geniuses or gods. Barack Obama held that title for awhile. He “dared” to question the system of individual rights and private property that was rare and unprecedented throughout human history. He sneered at anyone who upheld those values as tired and repudiated, while upholding the tyranny of socialism and collectivism as if they’re something new or different. Obama was a high-profile and classic example of a questioner who’s not a thinker. If he did think deeply, he wouldn’t spend his time in private jets and on yachts with Oprah — not if he really considered he’s violating his own principles of selfless service and anti-materialism for everyone else.
The lunacy we now see around us is the direct result of placing questioning over thinking. It’s a cognitive error that results in … well, insanity. That’s where we are, in terms of the dominant cultural, socipolitical and psychological trends. If you want to understand why we, as a culture, have gone crazy, this is a BIG part of the reason.
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