Conformity breeds stupidity

September 17, 2008

There is a difference between conforming your behavior and conforming your mind. It’s perfectly reasonable to respect murder prohibitions, but it’s not reasonable to accept conventional thinking without challenge. That doesn’t mean you should disagree with every idea or conviction held by another, but it does mean you shouldn’t include deference or majority opinion as an important factor in determining your conclusions — assuming you are knowledgeable and intelligent enough to understand the subject matter. Who cares what other people think, prove your case.

I find it so frustrating having to face the same tired old arguments every time I discuss important issues with people. It doesn’t matter how much logic or how many facts you drop on the table, some people always fall back to asinine arguments such as, “everybody says real estate is the best investment you’ll ever make except for you, do you think the whole world is wrong and you are right, that you are the smartest person in the world?” First of all, the whole world will never agree on anything. Second of all, how do you know I’m not the smartest person in the world?

In my experience, I have found that conforming minds become lazy minds, and lazy minds become stupid minds. Never accept any opinion at face value. Understand the reason someone holds an opinion and judge those reasons, not the conclusions of people who may very well have inferior abilities.