The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1934. ON THINKING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 35, 10 February 1934, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1934. ON THINKING

T'HE most important function which the human being can accomplish is to think. When it comes to thinking, however, the average man has a very poor opinion of himself. If any suggestion is made by anyone else that he is incapable of rational thinking, he immediately takes umbrage. That the mental apparatus with which he has been endowed is in any way defective, he will not admit under any circumstances. Yet, despite his absolute belief in the machine in his head, he is still very modest about his own thinking. The truth is, of course, that very few people indeed ever settle down to do any constructive thinking on any conceivable subject whatsoever. On the larger issues of existence most men have given up the job; on the lesser issues of human relations many men, nay, most men again, are unwilling to become properly acquainted with the facts, and then after having made an irrational stab at coming to an opinion, declare that these matters are beyond human understanding, and that is why the leaders of the thinking section are all in opposition to each other. As a matter of fact, the half-thinkers, the dabblers who gain some credence because they go a little way along the road to acquire the necessary knowledge of the subject on which they wish to think, are more dangerous than the human sheep. The human sheep can be led, and are willing to be led; they are, in very truth, looking to be led. Some clamour for a leader to do their thinking for them. Such people to-day are crying out for a Mussolini and a Hitler. They are probably right in their attitude, but if they were to realise the actual category into which they put themselves by their clamour for the “strong man,’’ they would become still more modest. The man who is not prepared to pull his weight in the community in which he lives, who knows nothing of its problems, who is unconcerned to inform himself on the perplexities which confront his age and generation, has very little knowledge as to whether a Hitler or a Mussolini would be able to do any better than those who at present try their hand at running the nation. But there would be this very delightful advantage for each human sheep : He would then know when to bleat, and he would never be called upon to think. His unwillingness, or his inability, to think and to express himself on other than matters which concern his creature comforts, would not be noticed, for personal liberty is nothing but the personal liberty to think, and when that is abolished then he is as good as the. thinking man who is his neighbour.