Research and verify (#1081)

This is not a scolding or an "I told you so moment". This is just the way things must be. All of my early life I thought I could get by with little information and no research. Well, that didn't go so well. I was easy pickings for my ego and others who were more aware. I found myself advocating for things that upon closer inspection were antithetical to my principled being. I gave others more force of my convictions, trusting that they were right, than I did to my own ability to reason and analyze. Simply because I was too lazy or didn't want to make the time to know for myself. It is a trap and in order to keep individuality intact, must be avoided. First off, there are many who would take advantage of those who won't allow themselves to think for themselves. Our society is so demanding and consequences are so punishing that many of us would rather trade on priorities for the sake of helping ourselves at the expense of others. Our society is mostly to blame for us being such manipulators. However, that does not excuse us from becoming willing victims. Secondly, not having control over our thoughts and actions diminishes our right to be free. When we abdicate to others how and what we should think and do, we have effectively gone backward in the evolution of the human species. Surely, we must all understand that knowledge is the key to enlightenment. If we do not allow ourselves to learn what we are curious about, then we have just become a tool and not a participant. What I used to shrink from, that being studying problems in order to find solutions, has now become a passion. I am not any more intelligent than anyone else yet my thirst for knowledge is insatiable. Am I wiser for it? yes, but starting at a low place and improving is not having arrived. It is a lifelong process but one I yearn for since it connects me to my humanity.