"Do We Think, or Just Think We Think?" was the engaging title of a Christian Science lecture given a number of years ago.Copyright © 1968, John H. Wyndham This question is probably more relevant today than ever before. How we answer it can make all the difference in the direction our lives take.
It's surprising just how much it can cost people when they expect others to do their thinking for them. I remember traveling in some communist countries ten years ago. Many of the people —people I got to know well—didn't feel much responsibility for their basic needs, such as food and shelter. They were told from the time they were young that their government was required to care for them. What was even more unsettling to me was how they expected their government to think for them too. The official newspapers and radio and television stations were there to let people know what they were supposed to believe. The living conditions were harsh in an environment without independence of thought or individual responsibility.
Later, things began to change as new ideas opened the way, and the people began to experiment with independence. It wasn't long before more than half of my friends' food came from one of the tiny plots of land that the people were allowed to cultivate. Not only did they cultivate land, they were cultivating thought. It wasn't easy, because for generations people had let the government officials do the thinking. Yet now they had not only responsibility but also hope. What and how they thought actually mattered; it affected both their living standards and what would happen to them in the future. Today they are discovering what standard of thinking is best for their lives.
