The Fear of Thought
And other phantoms
Reason is the light of the mind, and without her all things are dreams and phantoms. - Spinoza
When I was about eight years old, our family joined two others on an RV trip to Yellowstone National Park. Upon stopping at a scenic overlook, my buddy and I scrambled over a guardrail to peer at an expansive canyon. Out of nowhere, two large and very powerful fists snagged each of us by our nape and hurled us back across the barrier and onto the dusty ground. My father then proceeded to lecture us about stupidity and gravity. In this exchange, there was zero interest from my father about my feelings, only a stern lecture regarding the physics of sudden impact syndrome. In that talk, there was no issue understanding precisely what my father's thoughts were on my situation.
To this day, I never approach a ledge without the memory of Yellowstone ever etched upon my mind. Now, as a recovering alcoholic, I spent many a time over the guardrails daring the gods of gravity as I walked the tightrope of my former life. But never, even in inebriation, was I unaware of the gravity of my decisions. Well placed and directly communicated thoughts have those types of embedded results.
My concern is, as Western society lists into the second decade of the 21st century, expressing thoughts has become problematic. Within our educational systems, expressing individual thoughts is discouraged. Most of what we see coming out of our institutions of learning are pre-prescribed and pre-approved thoughts. It may be a cliché, but it is not untrue that today's students are "taught what to think, not how to think." And because of that reality, when the time arrives when necessary and lifesaving thoughts need to be expressed, the "told how to think" crowd remains speechless. There are simply far too many people in our societies that are afraid to think.
Writers have the same problem. When a writer puts pen to paper, they have one of two choices for their work. Either write what they believe their audience want to read or write what they believe. The former draws firmly on the notion of repeating what they were taught to think and presuming that is what their readers want to hear, where the latter is based upon writing what one truly thinks and finding an audience that respect, or sternly disagrees with, the writer's thoughts. F Scott Fitzgerald said, “The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say.” Effective writers, though leaving many thoughts on the cutting room floor or buried in the deep recesses of their minds, do put their thoughts before their readers and thus before the world. Great writers do so naked and unabashedly.
As a business leader and a writer, I am oft criticized by the business community for writing my thoughts on political, religious, or metaphysical topics. There seems to be an unwritten rule that, not only should there be a separation between church and state, (written nowhere in the US Constitution or Bill of Rights) there should also be a separation between business and state, a separation between business and church and definitely a separation between business and anything ethereal. But, if business leaders are only allowed to express thoughts about business through narrow business lenses, by whose authority are their thoughts measured?
What we were seeing unfold in the economics realm is the fruit of 50+ years of educational malfeasance. Personally, I do not think it is possible to teach children not to think. What educational systems have truly created are situations where students are afraid to think. That intimidation begins at an early age where students are taught to fear authority and continues throughout their entire educational captivity. Far too often (yours truly included) students regurgitate pre-prescribed thoughts on tests and papers to appease their educational overlords in exchange for favorable letter grades. That is the quid pro quo of our education credentialing system. Students produce "correct" thoughts in exchange for favorable affirmation in the form of a letter grade. Thinking, especially unsanctioned thoughts, is punished. John Dewey himself could not be prouder of what his notion of educational control has wrought in our economics and business communities.
Because of the legions of 4.0 of graduates from high schools, universities, and MBA programs that have been taught to fear authority, we have managerial ranks, C suite executives and board members that are afraid to think. Just like education prepared them, these executives differ to authority for answers to simple economic problems. Not because they're incapable of thinking, but because they are afraid of what counter narrative thoughts will have on their grading system. And just like in our educational systems where this fear gives undue power to teacher authority figures, so too does fear of thought give excessive power to our overlords of economics.
With this authoritative power, someone like Fed chairman Janet Yellen can issue statements saying inflation is transitory and healthy and go unchecked by executives that know that is pure bunk. Klaus Schwab and Larry Fink can push for economically unhealthy ESG standards and divert massive amounts of other people's money into companies that follow those ill-conceived standards and executives trained to be afraid of "bucking the system" toe ESG standards and proudly list them on their company's websites. Economists can downplay trillions of dollars in national debt as some form of Keynesian economic progress towards intersectionality and social justice, and business leaders, out of fear to think, ignore the signs that all these spinning economic plates in the air are about to come crashing to the floor.
We have created throngs of business leaders that continue to suppress their thoughts in exchange for a positive letter grade. That can be the only conclusion to why, collectively, entire business communities willfully shattered their operations at the onset of a pandemic. Clearly, they understood the revenue versus expenses formula is what produces profits or losses. They also must have understood that sustained losses due to lack of revenue has a negative impact on the business and thus their own livelihoods. They must have known, though they may not have foreseen all of the negative impacts of closing their businesses, that will fully and purposefully shutting down an entire economy would forever alter the equilibrium that healthy supply and demand economic systems produce. They also must have known that shutting down all, but "essential," businesses would unfairly divert capital into the hands of mega corporations while at the same time decimating smaller companies. Yet, fear of thinking kept way too many business leaders silent.
How did I know lockdowns promoted by the WHO were inherently wrong? How, when the entire Western world was sheltering in place, did I know from day one to publicly address my disagreement with the lockdown madness? Simple, long ago I overcame my fear of thinking.
Thinking is more than just innately knowing right from wrong, which we all have been endowed by our Creator to discern, thinking is understanding from whence "authoritative" pressures come and being not afraid to have thoughts counter to those narratives. When I was young, I was sent to the principal's office for insolence and insubordination more times than I can possibly count. Every time, I was sternly warned that whatever altercation landed me in principle Lee’s office, it would go on my permanent record. I learned way back in elementary school the "permanent record threat" was a paper tiger. Since a multitude of those infractions ever etched on my permanent record had no real bearing to my existence, I learned that those idle threats by authorities in my life are simply that, idle threats.
Overcoming the fear of thought requires an understanding of authority's motivation. Principal Lee's motivation was to trick me into compliance. Janet Yellen's motivation is to promote pure partisan politics. Carl Schwab and Larry Fink motivations are to usher in a one-world Marxist government. Once one understands the motivation of the authorities issuing thought proclamations, it is easy to come up with the right answers. As my old college professor and mentor once said, "Mr. Nelson, you know you are right if you have the right enemies." Coming up with the right thoughts in the 21st century is usually as simple as listening to what our "authorities" say and doing the opposite. There is one exception to this rule, and that is reacting to thoughts from God's authority. Since God's motivation is eternal love, eternal forgiveness, and eternal salvation, thinking the opposite of his authority is ill-advised. Being the counter-punch to God’s authority is the motivation behind Lord Nefarious’ role in maintaining free will. Sadly, Yet, as their thoughts continue to gain wider audiences, Yellen, Schwab, and Fink seem to have no fear about freely following his brand of thinking.