As a youth, experiencing new things and facing the world for the first time has made me curious about everything. Whether about people, politics, science, art or myself, I am searching for an understanding. Moved by both the positive and negative in the world, I am filled with questions. Why are things the way they are? Is this the way they should be, the way I want them to be?
But even with all these bursting questions, I find myself conflicting between my personal thinking and my surroundings and sometimes all my energy just seems to dissipate. I suppose most of the time it is easier to go with the flow. With all the pressures of our busy lives, it’s easier to stop thinking and just give in. A lot of people seem to live in some sort of daze where nothing much bothers them and where their own questions are sidelined for convenience. Maybe it is because we are spoon-fed too much information by the media, a lot of us does not have the energy to listen to our own voices. Or maybe we arere just scared that if we do, we might disturb the harmony, if there really is any. Of course there is also the self-doubt of whether our voice holds any importance. Raising questions or posing a new opinion can make you feel unsure of yourself, especially when you are a minority, i.e. “Is my point worth making?”
To be sure, we have to explore the issue, do our research and stretch our minds. I think we should probe into our questions and probe into ourselves, pursue whatever doubts we have about our surroundings, and when we do we will know whether we have a point worth making, or even making a stand. Sometimes we’re wrong, but it’s better to find out by thinking into the situation than it is to waste your mind by ignoring your inclinations. When faced with the dilemma of silencing my thoughts versus exploring them, I always found that the latter held benefits, even if they were in ways I did not anticipate-knowledge is power.
To be able to think deeper and freely is not always easy but icons in history teach us how advantageous it is to society, and how it has been a means to change the world. An example of this being Albert Einstein, who always thought deeper than the average cat and who often questioned conventional wisdom. Einstein took concepts that scientists considered universal laws, such as the idea that time is an invariable, and manipulated them into producing mind-blowing theorem on relativity. He defied ‘common sense’ and came up with his own version, and the product of this was E=MC2, and a new horizon for the possibilities of science. Another great mind and Great Soul was Mohandas Gandhi, whose non-violent thinking not only freed India from British imperialism but left a very powerful message to the world telling us to rethink our motives and thoughts. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King set similar examples. The list of brilliant thinkers is ongoing and is not exclusive to any genre of people. From academics to social reformers, political theorists like Karl Marx, to artists such as Leonardo Davinci, they were all thinkers who opened up new ideas for the world by thinking differently and following through their own thoughts.
So let us remove our mental inhibitions and liberate our minds. Challenge your surroundings and do not ignore the doubts you have but rather confront them. Whatever the issue, we should feel an obligation to our minds, to quench our thirsts for understanding and find the answers we seek. Maybe with that we can change the world.
