Over the years there's been a massive backlash against #eclectic thinkers, from all sides, although certainly the driving force has come from the "right" wing, so called "conservatives" attempting to silence free thinking.
Yes, it is a broad statement, especially since most people like to think they are "#freethinkers". The adage that comes to mind is "I think, I am free, therefore I am a free thinker". But of course that is a false connection. You're going to think whether you are free or not, and you're free to think whatever you want, although what you think might not be as "free" as it is programmed.
High curiosity creates an eclectic mind. Free thinking needs curiosity and the less you are in a niche the more you are free to think.
What's your niche? Who's #yourtribe? What group(s) do you "#belong" to?
We get those questions both in our professional and personal lives, right?
I'm eclectic. I like to learn as much as I need to in any given subject when I need to or want to, I want to master it at whatever level I need or want to be at and then complete my goal. Then I want to move on to the next subject which might be off in left field comparatively. I don't like the sight of blood(God love you nurses and doctors), so all medical is extremely limited to the base layman. I don't usually like plants, although some of you know I've decided I want to learn, and that's been very challenging since every book on it completely bores the hell out of me. But generally pretty much every subject on the planet will intrigue me for a bit.
It's every conversation I've ever had where someone mentioned something that I had never heard before and I wanted to know more. For eclectic people, we need to know more. Not more than, just more. It's NOT a #competition.
The Internet has made it so much easier if you are like this, but what I find fascinating now is how many people don't know how to look things up. They let the algorithms do the work and assume it's providing you what you are looking for. I promise you it does not.
Look up any book on Google books. Pretend you don't know the name or author, but you know the subject. Scroll the books it brings up. It begins showing you the same dozen or so on repeat. It's the Internet, it's an algorithm or AI, IT can access every book, thousands, that fit your descriptors, yet it shows you the same 6, 10 or 12. It picks the ones it thinks you should see, not one you might be looking for.
But it's picking what I most likely will be interested in?
No, because when I search the Vietnam War for a very specific book, it refused to find it. And it gave me books from people I won't read. I'm not going to read a book on Vietnam from a military guy old enough to have served, BUT that did NOT serve in the Vietnam War. That's like reading what Billy Bob thinks what it's like to have a period.
So you might think you're getting eclectic, while in reality a computer program is steering you. The people making that program often are steering you.
Now I'm going to shock the right wing folks a little. Yes, when college professors pick textbooks, especially when they are considered knowledge experts and use textbooks they themselves have written, they are doing the same thing, sort of.
Is that your ah-ha moment?
No, because there's plenty of conservative professors. They are just fewer and further between, because professors and universities goal is free thinking not #indoctrination indoctrination. They want to give folks the basic knowledge, then let them go on to develop their own analyses.
Do you really think the engineering professor expects that his students will learn what he/she teaches and then not go on to use that knowledge to create new machines? New concepts? And possibly even new concepts that will be taught in future textbooks?
Of course not. They expect their students will blossom into creators and teachers in their own right.
#Indoctrination is the complete opposite. Indoctrinators tell you they have the credentials you need even though they don't. They feed you a long list of reading material but only the material they want you to read. They convince you that everyone else is wrong and only they are correct. They tell you not to believe them, not to trust them, and feed you only what they need you to learn to r know. Seems to be a very common theme in almost every evangelical church that it comes to light how they are treating their children and women. Scientology and extremist mormans go so far as to tell you that you can have no contact with anyone that isn't a member, including your own family. That's a massive difference comparatively to selecting what you learn and then expecting you to blossom on your own and select your own friends, your own family, and be open to all other people, doesn't it?
So as these indoctrination routines have expanded more and more into our #everydaylife whether Fox News or Liberty University or churches like IBPL (my latest research which the rabbit hole is grotesque), we as a collective are becoming less and less eclectic.
My tribe? My people? My niche? The eclectic. And I fear that is being stolen away from the eclectic out there with these subtle to out right in your face methods of indoctrination. While the indoctrinators claim they are the heroes, they crush the most basic and sublime human characteristic: Curiosity.
Ahh well, as always #thinkaboutit . Peace.
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