Think For Yourself

A Persuasive Speech by Amy Morrow

 

            The concept of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is enshrined in the documents upon which this nation of ours is supposedly founded.  If the pursuit of happiness does not mean the right to experiment with your own mind, then those words aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

            Living day-to-day life, what do we see?  The same thing over and over.  Everyone wants to be like someone else.  I myself am guilty of it and so are you.  Everyone dresses the same, acts pretty much the same, and seems to think the same.  If you or I stumble onto someone who is different, we call him or her weird, eccentric, a freak.

            Why is it so hard for us to think for ourselves?  To invent our own ideas.  Why must we fashion ourselves after other people.  The world’s greatest artists, writers, thinkers were once called weird and eccentric.  Albert Einstein was told that he was crazy for his ideas.  Now we hail him as a genius.  He and many others thought outside the box and look at what they accomplished.  So imagine what you yourself could do if you only took a moment to stop and think.  Really think.

            But then again in our modern times we have less time for the peace and quiet of contemplation.  The mass media does much of society’s collective thinking for us by serving us the opinions of a few individuals.  We are told what to think. We inevitably acquire prejudices and opinions, which are spoon fed to us by television and newspapers.  Nonetheless, we believe that we have free will, that we can decide things for ourselves.

            Often that message comes from large corporations like Nike, and it comes in the form of slogans like “Just do it.”  What they seem to be saying is “Do what you want to, when you want to.  Be spontaneous.  Be original.”  What they are actually saying is that if you, like everyone else, just give in and buy their products, then you will be accepted. People will think you’re cool.

            Free will is one of the great gifts we all possess.  Although there are very few who really use it.  And those that do are criticized.

            But what does it mean to really and truly think for yourself?  Does that mean to rebel, or to become a protestor?  Not necessarily, it simply means, don’t let anyone else tell you how you should think.  Aristotle said that when man lives alone he is either a beast or a god, but is not a man.  As we struggle our way through the psychic flux of everyday life, the key to true, liberating independence of thought lies not in total independence from your fellow man, which is impossible.  It lies in learning to recognize the difference between being enlightened and having your chin pulled.  It lies in developing the skills necessary to accurately judge information based on facts, logic, and reason.  It lies in learning to let go of beliefs that you know to be false, but to which you cling out of habit, convenience, or superstition.

            Ignorance is bliss.  Thinking for yourself is hard work.

            “It is with joy that we come into your midst to leave with you one or two thoughts that might be of help to you in your world.”  A preacher once said this.  Imagine that your thoughts, your very own, could influence someone else, could help them in some way.  If we only think what those who have gone before us have told us to think, we will never have the joy of knowing that by our very own freethinking we could have bettered someone’s life.

            Timothy Leary once said, “Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality.  To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.”

            That quote itself embodies everything that is thinking for yourself.  You must open up your mind.

            Even the Beatles understood this concept and in one of their songs they stated:

            “Although your mind’s opaque,

Try thinking more if just for your own sake.”

Society has done just that, clouded our minds.  Told us what to like, think, and who to be.

            Vernon Howard said this in a book he wrote.  It is so very true.  We must break the binding chains of society and think for ourselves.  Freely.  This will, in turn, change the world and make it a better place to live.