YoM Day 176: challenging the status quo

Yesterday, I talked about how we use our time. Today is a new day.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.” - Albert Einstein

Throughout history there have been many people who have been scrutinized for speaking their minds because it doesn't follow the mainstream belief system. Time and time again have such people proven that there's still so much we don't know and understand about the world and that there's a need to reevaluate our mindset from time to time.  

Nobody wants to acknowledge when they're wrong. It's rare for people to admit, "I'm wrong" without hesitation. When faced with someone who opposes their view, they are forced to confront their inadequacies, which is uncomfortable. Some respond by opposing the other person's ideas as if the idea itself is faulty. Other use authoritative figures (like media articles, etc.) to confirm their views and put down the other's.

This is especially true on a social level because we generally don't want our peers to see us in a negative light. That's why so many people will immediately jump on board the bandwagon in supporting various movements. If other people are doing it, they wanna join in so they can be a part of the group. This reflects our "us" vs "them" mindset. The more people that come together makes it so that those in the minority are the ones who are "wrong". Instead of listening to each other and working together different parties refuse to cooperate, shut each other out, and we've become more divided as a result.

History has shown what censorship does to a culture. Be it China during Chairman Mao's reign or its "Great Firewall" on their internet today, the elimination of independent journalism and free speech in Eritrea, or the current state of North Korea; those who oppose the norm are being stigmatized, imprisoned, abducted, and even murdered. The people were told to trust in their leaders and not question anything. There's a reason why people are so willing to follow the ideals set out by authoritative figures, too. It's the comfort and predictability in the order of "status quo" and disrupting this order is inconvenient. Challenging it feels like work and forces people to spend time and energy evaluating the situation and think for themselves. Being spoon-fed what's "right" is much easier. People love convenience and it's inconvenient when people challenge your worldview.   

This brings us to the people who chose to fight the norm and do what they believed in even if it meant facing stigma. Great minds such as Einstein, Galileo, Copernicus, etc.  challenged the mainstream worldviews and overcame scrutiny and oppression in order to fight for what they believe in, even if nobody else was there to support them. They could conceptualize ideas that others at the time could not even fathom, which is why explaining them in a way that people could understand was so difficult. 

They knew their ideas were true on a deep level (the spirit), the challenge was getting the minds of others to accept them. They had a spirit that could tell that something was wrong and they had the willpower to overcome their social programing that most people are content with following. To those who could not understand their ideas, they seemed to be complete nonsense; but rather than giving up, these great spirits saw the opposition as a challenge to be overcome and that drove them. After all, "the Earth is the center of the universe and flat", right? That's what people used to think before Galileo. 

The "mediocre minds" suffer from their lack of conception because they've never trained themselves to think independently. They've just gone with what they've been told since childhood and I think this generation is no different. Growing up, I was told to question everything if I really wanted to understand the world around me. Ever since I've been opposed to blindly following what I'm told because I know there's a lot of bullshit out there. I want to think for myself, even if it means being wrong. I'll admit when I'm wrong, but I walked down that path on my own accord. I see a lot of people just following the next trend in political correctness without really knowing why and this is why I think freedom of speech is so important in maintaining balance. Without it we wouldn't have Newtons, Aristotles, or Tesla. 

There is always insight to be gained from looking through a different perspective and when people are being censored on youtube, facebook, and other wide-spread platforms I take it as a red flag that something's up. In times like this I think it's more important than ever to learn to challenge everything and find truth for ourselves.

                                                                                                                               Peace

In life we either lead, follow, or get out of the way. To me, freedom comes in finding your own path and paving it for anyone curious enough to delve into the rabbit hole.