Imagine that you are not allowed to think for yourself. Also try to imagine a scenario where you are too distracted to think for yourself. If you are not sure what I mean, watch this short clip of the Pixar movie, WALL-E. Ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato suffered from the former. Poor Socrates was sentenced to death for thinking and believing something outside of the norm.
I think we are beginning to succumb to the latter. We live in a fast-paced world with many distractions. We literally have an endless supply of cheap entertainment at our disposal. Perhaps one day, all of our work will be automated and we'll end up like people in the spaceship like in the clip below. Without any responsibility whatsoever, what will we choose to do?
Many Greek philosophers had a lot of free time because they were higher class citizens with fewer responsibilities. They chose to spend their time reflecting and think critically about life. They didn't have things like Netflix. What if they did? Would we have the Socratic method? I'm not so sure.
This is a direct tie-in to my previous post about binge-watching TV shows and scanning headline news. I see it in myself and almost everyone I know. We're not reflecting anymore. Reflection is key. We're surfing along at high-speed, being entertained, missing the finer details of life, not thinking for ourselves.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with watching a movie or TV show - if it's in moderation. To binge, in my opinion is inherently unhealthy. We need to slow it down. Capture the details. Do something else. Investigate and fact check what you are reading or watching. Take nothing at face value. Don't become a robot or a sheep.
Slow down, live your life, and think for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment