Thinking for Ourselves – A Brief Reflection

On the flight between Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and the Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport, I was doing a bit of reading from Thomas Merton’s book Disputed Questions. In the light of all that is going on in this country and the profound lack of critical thinking on the part of so many who support the totalitarian regime that is the current presidential administration, these words from Merton seemed quite appropriate.

It seems to me that for all our pride in our freedom and individuality we have completely renounced thinking for ourselves. What passes for “thinking” is mass-produced, passively accepted, or not even accepted. We simply submit to the process of being informed, without anything actually registering on our mind at all. We are content to turn on a switch and be comforted by the vapid, but self-assured slogans of the speaker who, we fondly hope, is thinking for the whole nation. (p. 5, Kindle edition)