I sometimes run into people who call themselves realists and say “Look, Visa, some people are just stupid- MOST people are just stupid- and will never be able to think for themselves. You gotta accept that reality and work with it. Your vision is unrealistic. Some people lead, others follow.”

I acknowledge this as the CURRENT reality, but I don’t see why it always has to be this way. If it were, then it would mean that me (and those of you reading this) are somehow intrinsically better than everybody else. Do you really believe that? I don’t.

Look at it this way- during the Enlightenment, the vast majority of people were illiterate. When public education was proposed, it was ridiculed- those peasant children are never going to be able to learn to read and write.

Well, most of us can learn to read and write, right? Somehow now that’s an assumption we take for granted. Literacy is not the domain of the elite.

I don’t see why independent thinking has to be any different. It will take time, yes, but we will get there.