Sunday, September 11, 2011

Think for Yourself


This article on the daily capitalist features this article from William Edelen, a Christian minister, an intellectual, a thinker, and very definitely an iconoclast. He wrote the following piece right after 9-11 on one of his favorite themes. 
The Torpid, Mindless Mass
By William Edelen
October 7, 2001
The question for today is at the heart of the problem we face as a nation. It is exactly the same question that was requested for my lectures at the University of Alabama Conference Center several years ago. I was asked to explore Carl Jung’s question: “Why are so many millions willing and eager to turn their lives over to outside authorities?”
Why are so many today, without thinking, willing to turn their mind/brain, soul/spirit, over to outside individuals, institutions, authorities and ideologies? Whether it be to Osama bin Laden or whether it be to Christian, Muslim and Jewish authorities of dogma, or whether it be to Republican or Democratic dogma, or whatever the outside authority or institution might be that is telling you what to think, what to believe and how to live your life.  Read More...
The more we depend on outside authorities for direction, the more is our own growth and creative unimplemented arrested. And yet, how many still yearn for an outside religious authority to pat us on the head and tell us we have been good, or to slap our little hands and tell us we have been bad, ensuring that we stay forever emotionally stunted and dwarfed spiritually.

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