THE FATE OF THE AVERAGE MAN
A simple chance of fate determines the society and culture we're born into, and our subsequent gender and race roles, our nationality, language, religion, social class, etc. Then the voices of social and cultural conditioning so overwhelm us that by the time we reach the age of reason we accept them as fact and ride them to our death bed, forever failing to recognize or question their initial chance authority. This is the fate of the average man or woman.
But this isn't the case for the occasional person who, through a supportive environment or spark of insight or outside influence, recognizes this situation and challenges it. But it takes continuous effort to silence these early social and cultural voices because their influence runs deep and is only gradually reduced with each successive try.
"The real danger behind custom, tradition, and public opinion is that they masquerade as "reality" and usually pass unquestioned and unchallenged into our unconscious. This collective unconscious is practically invisible to the people who share it, yet is easily visible to an outsider. Look at any group outside of your own and you will readily see it.These beliefs represent a closed system and provide enough answers to enough questions to make up a logically coherent system. So why would anyone question this coherent system of beliefs? A better question is how could anyone question it? It's a wonder that any one ever gets the idea to challenge it at all."
Anyone of average intelligence is capable of independent thinking. But whether they will ever embark on this path is largely a function of their priorities. If someone is well socialized and sees no inconsistencies in their world view, they may never have a reason to challenge their inherited belief system.
Independent thinkers understand the large influence that our inherited belief system has on our lives. And we recognize that until we obtain a more balanced viewpoint, we will remain closely dependent upon it. This is not to suggest that social and cultural conditioning is always bad. But it does highlight the fact that childhood social and cultural conditioning is typically narrow, proprietary, and almost always excludes other equally valid views. Our social and cultural conditioning offers but one small view of a larger, universally shared reality.
We will always be dependent on what we "know," on our knowledge base. But the broader and deeper each persons knowledge base becomes, the more and more valid their conclusions will be. Our social and cultural conditioning is the first major obstacle to overcome in order become an independent thinker. From then on, all other forms of convention and authority are more easily identified and questioned.
Each of us owes it to ourselves, our community, and future generations to examine our social and cultural conditioning and update it with a conscious, rational, deliberately chosen philosophy.