Thinking Freely

10 Jul, 2024

Lately, I’ve been thinking much about thinking. In order to think freely or to be free of thinking, one must relinquish all illusions of control and allow whatever comes to mind to come to mind. Many people are afraid of confronting themselves in such a manner because these illusions arise from a falsely constructed ego — and letting go of this ego would be an admission that they do not know who they are, nor what they think.

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular. — Carl Jung ¹

My preference for possibilities over prescription means that anything stifling openness and novelty induces fear. Creativity derives from freedom, and freedom requires spontaneity — and what kind of life is a life without spontaneity?

Chinese writer and intellectual of the 1990s, Wang Xiaobo, believed vehemently in the necessity of self-directed thought, as well as the essential stimulation found in novelty. In his essay collection Pleasure of Thinking, he asserts that in several domains of life ‘a certain degree of monotony and mechanical repetition is unavoidable, but thinking should not be included in such domains’. This powerful declaration serves as a principle that grows ever more pertinent in my own life, with my acute awareness of its brevity and singularity. Poring over my sporadically underlined translation, I find that his ideas on intellectual freedom offer not only a lens through which to access deeper personal insights, but also a means of navigating the complexities of contemporary society with a dose of unforgiving humour.

Xiaobo’s experiences surviving political indoctrination as an intellectual youth or zhiqing (知識青年) at the height of China’s tightly controlled Cultural Revolution colours his liberal sentiments around individual agency. In the essay for which his collection is named, Xiaobo considers the issue of curating one's thoughts with an amusingly likeminded relativism, stating that those who ‘believe a person should be filled with only high-minded thoughts and relieved of all the lowly ones’ terrifies him, being ‘precisely an amalgam of high and low thoughts’ such that if some were compromised, his identity would become 'a question’.

I hold all the respect in the world for high-minded gentlemen, but if you had to pluck out my brain and replace it with theirs, I would refuse, unless you could somehow prove to me that I am evil in the extreme and deserve death. So long as a person is alive, the continuity of their thoughts ought to be guaranteed. Not to mention, the high and the low are all being measured from one’s own perspective. If I accepted them unconditionally, it would be like letting well-thinking hens lay eggs in my brain. But I would never concede that the thing on my neck is actually a chicken nest. ²

There are those who would argue that conformity and adherence to the norms and expectations of a collective conscious are essential to the maintenance of social harmony — and that without some degree of uniformity would unfold utter chaos. Such is the character of systems and schools of thought that often turn into single-minded cults, religions and authoritarian regimes, like the Cultural Revolution. In this period of China’s history, many free-thinking intellectuals were silenced, lest the Chinese Communist Party lost its grip on the minds of the people. Whilst the Party's suppression of free thought was undoubtedly oppressive, proponents might advocate its necessity for a perceived greater good. This perspective, however, overlooks the importance of diversity in thought and the progress that it engenders. The dangers of sacrificing innovation and individuality in favour of uniformity cannot be overstated.

Without doubt, the larger the group we associate with, the greater the danger. Nothing, though, is as destructive to good character as occupying a seat in some public spectacle, for then the pleasure of the sight lets the faults slip in more easily. — Seneca ³

It's safe to say that it takes a greater deal of effort than ever before to protect the contents of one’s cranium in an era of so-called influencers and imitative behaviour founded upon increasingly superficial metrics of social status, wealth and politics that shun critical thinking and true individuality. Here’s to honouring oneself — with unique ideas and insights garnered from within.