Independent thinking is an idea that everyone pays lip service to. But how often do we join in groupthink?

Cleary portrayed in the experiments performed by Stan Milgram, professor, and American social psychologists, conformity can dramatically negatively influence individuals.

The participants in the study were told to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a “learner”. These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.

The experiment found, unexpectedly, that a very high proportion of people, 65% of experiment participants administered the fatal 450-volt shock. Albeit reluctant they would fully obey the instructions.

Conformity can often be seen as the easy alternative to intellectual independence. If you’re doing what you’re told, joining the majority you are cheered on by like-minded people.

But this blind conformity is the root of much anguish and regret in the world.

Communism, a terrible evil, was blindly followed by the masses, which caused numerous deaths. Slavery, an idea now despised by modern society, was blindly followed. Nazism, sexism, cultism, organized crime, and other forms of violence or oppression have thrived on blind conformity.

A multitude of wars have been fought because citizens have placed their blind trust in national leaders.

Socrates, the teacher of Plato, is well known for having said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Being intellectually dependent is a far better alternative than conformity.

People think that individualism fights against the glue that holds society together. Individualism is often characterized as the opposing beliefs to what holds society together. However, I believe conformity is what can pull society apart. Conformity, the desire to fit in or get along with the “norm” degrades individual choice, moral and freedom.

Your mind is your biggest advantage and resource. To take on the ideas and views of others without thorough personal analysis is one of the most egregious kinds self-betrayal.

Intellectual independence is paid lip service to but how are we using our ability to analyze in a practical way.

To be crystal clear intellectually independent does not mean that you have an opinion on every topic.

This would be both unattainable and excessive. Rather intellectual independence is broken down into 4 parts.
Decide what topics are relevant to your life. This is unique to you. It’s no service to yourself to be informed on beekeeping if you have no interest in beekeeping. Decide on topics that you are interested in and view as valuable to be informed on.
Be as informed as you can about those topics. Upon determining these topics do your research, analyze the facts and form an opinion.
Check ideas you blindly follow. I do it, you do it, we all do it. There are tons of beliefs we blindly follow. Some are primarily harmless, this chair will hold me up, others destructive, I have to go to college to be successful. Challange ideas that are limiting you.
Put no earthly authority higher than your ability to think for yourself. Too often we give others authority when they have not earned it. The internet is the perfect abuser of this. The information you consume can often be falsified or blatantly untrue.

I encourage you to think for yourself. Analyze the data and form an educated opinion. You may find that it differs from the masses who do not exercise their power to judge ideas. And therefore find themselves unknowingly taking whatever they are given.
Don’t wait to begin your journey to intellectual independence. Begin right now.