Just putting my thoughts on paper...
Free thought is a rarity these days. People accept what they are told on the news as if the words are coming from an all knowing being. They don't question where they get their opinions from, they refuse to think for themselves. Most people live their entire lives this way without even questioning their thoughts even once, and it is a major problem for society. We have seen the effects of this in the past, most notably during Hitler's reign, as well as in communism. Citizens are told things, day in day out, and they absorb and absorb and absorb until they believe that a lie, is a truth, without even having knowledge of the subject that they claim to know all the answers to.
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." - Adolf Hitler
Free thought, is the philosophy that any forms of truth should be formed on the basis of logic, reason, and experience, rather than authority or tradition. Us humans have been on the earth long enough to realize the importance of this, but anywhere you go, people don't mention it. The most notable example of anti-free thought today stems from our schools and universities. They are now only teaching government set curriculum's, their is barely any variety among the learning's of the students. They are pumping out the same people, over and over again, who's goal in life is get a job, work hard, have a family, encourage their children to do the same, and then they die and the cycle continues. Its an easy cycle to get caught up in, but it is also an easy cycle to break out of.
"“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.” - Baruch Spinoza"
“It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.” - Tacitus
Anyone can think freely. The first step is to question everything you are told, not openly, keep it to yourself and realize the situation. No need to reject any actions of another person, whether it be their faith or their political views, just think about what you, yourself can do to get out of the echo-chamber of mainstream opinion.
My Blog: Sailormann
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"There has never been a philosophy, a theory or a doctrine, that attacked (or 'limited') reason, which did not preach submission to the power of some authority."
~ Ayn Rand