Yes, You Can

The biggest difference between people, is how independent and free they are -- even beyond their actual physical limitations and abilities -- is what they think they can do, or cannot.

For most people today, unfortunately, that is the indoctrination that they can do little, or even nothing, for themselves, or on their own.  In everything, and every way, they are "taught" to require the instruction and guidance of others, before thinking they could do those things for themselves -- without that assistance, and would be far better off, for the actual learning of that process -- rather than just being taught the "answer," which may not necessarily be the best, or even correct.

Often in the world of instruction, it doesn't matter that one learns the best technique or insights, but merely that they teach what all the other teachers teach, or agree to teach -- as the only truth everyone should know.  So the fact that everyone knows something, doesn't necessarily make it true, or helpful, and may not serve the best interests of the individual, but rather the status quo that benefits from that widespread belief -- which in contemporary society, is the belief that one can do little, if nothing, for and by oneself -- which is the very antithesis of a free and independent life this country was founded upon.

The unions and its teachers, drum into their charges, that they are nothing alone, or acting as individuals, but can only have power and be effective, acting as a group or collective, imposing their will on all the others, because they are organized to do so.  Thus, some people know no other way of being, except to go along with the crowd, as the only way of life -- and never know what it means to think and act for themselves -- which is the fulfilment and achievement of every individual life.

Many in fact, do not think such a life is possible -- to stand alone in this world, and think things out for themselves.  Their teachers may expressly teach them not to -- in preference to their authority to tell them what to think, instead of learning how to think, for themselves, and on their own.  That is the function of mass media and mass education so that people learn what to think, rather than how to think for themselves.

Those of the former, are constantly trying to get everyone else to get into that conformity -- and to regard every other way, as a deviancy, if not a heresy.  What will happen, if everyone insisted on thinking for themselves?, the teachers will often say, warning of the chaos that would ensue, as though that were a matter of fact.  That underlies their belief that every truth is arbitrary, and needing to be taught, rather than learned.

Fundamentally, that is the difference, between those who think they can, and those who think they cannot.  They have to learn that on their own -- because that is never taught, but only and always learned, by those capable of any real learning.  That is what education tries to mimic -- the actual learning process, that the whole reality of a culture (environment) empowers, or does not.  When it does not, then that society must sow fears and limitations so that no one dares go beyond the conformity -- to the right (only) way of thought and doing anything, which is always within the prescribed pattern, even if it doesn't work for most people -- but they've come to accept it as the only way it can be.

Unfortunately, as most people grow older in life, they come increasingly to be taught that they cannot do more and more, and can only look forward then, to a life of increasing dysfunction and dependency on others to do everything for them -- as the promise and entitlement of that generation.  

So certainly, a few will ask, "Is there another way, another fate for mankind?"