A very short essay: a nation of dutiful children

A problem for democratic societies is they need a thoughtful citizenry to succeed. They need a critical mass of people who think for themselves and, generally, people don’t think for themselves. They don’t think at all. Mostly what they do that they call thinking is feel and remember. They remember what they were told to think when they were kids by their parents, by teachers, by preachers, priests, and rabbis, by other kids, by characters on television. As kids they took all this in and never forgot it and never doubted it. They still accept it without question, without thought, especially when it’s a matter of religion. And the result is that instead of a nation of independent minded adults, we live in a giant Sunday School full of dutiful children.