Your Thought Matters

So what is the deal with thinking? Are we not allowed to think what we want to think? There are no mind controlling devices telling us what to think! Or are there? Have we not progressed far enough to accept each other’s opinions? When we have to question this, there is seriously a problem! Why does this matter? This is BIG because it is about knowledge. Thus, “All that we know will be all that we ever will know.
Today, I had an intriguing conversation with a young man. The topic was 9/11. He was probably from Africa, but I did not want to get into that. Let’s just say he is not from America. The topic raised a lot of controversy in his mind. He, not being American, did not see the topic in the typical “American point of view”. He thought about things that Americans do not concern themselves with. He also probably had his own preconceptions about the event. But, regardless of the two, he did not feel that he wanted to voice his opinions in his class. He did not want to say things that may not be acceptable.
This came across as troubling to me because any time that someone does not feel comfortable with speaking out their ideas, it is never right. Why? Because, any instance when our opinions cannot be spoken, it is a direct threat to knowledge, sophistication, and freedom. Why? Because there is no sense in only knowing what we already know. The beauty of new ideas is that there is new knowledge to be sought and new points of view to acknowledge. What should anyone ever get this sense?
Personally, I see this as a loss to anyone if no one felt that they were free to speak their mind. I want to see things in a new way, but it will be impossible when there are people who believe that they mustn’t. Why do they think this? Because of narrow minded people who do not want to seek truth beyond what they know.