If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking. ---Benjamin Franklin
A couple of years ago I bought a book of cryptogram puzzles from the twice-a-year Alachua County Friends of the Library used book sale. It wasn't too long before I realized that I could easily solve many of its encoded messages: a large portion of them were Benjamin Franklin quotes, and once I could see at the bottom of the quote the familiar pattern of letters in his name, the rest was too simple. Well, at least I got acquainted with a lot of his quotes...
I fervently believe that it is a sign of maturity, as well as mental health, to be willing to listen to others with different opinions and ways of looking at things without feeling that my own belief system is being threatened or that I need to pronounce some kind of judgment against them for differing from me. Yet it seems from what I'm noticing about people's behavior in the news/opinion shows on TV as well as on social media that the trend is going in the direction of intolerance, with many on both sides of the political spectrum making the deliberate choice to belittle those with divergent priorities or even condemn them, placing them in categories to which they do not remotely belong. Last week I quoted the great French author Victor Hugo as saying, "I think, therefore I doubt." Franklin's above quote is a corollary to this: if you only surround yourself with likeminded thinkers, you are not thinking but rather parroting a dogma. This apparently appeals to many folks, who feel that only what they believe constitutes "right" thinking...
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