CXXV. The Freedom to Not Think

Editor’s Note (with help from Claude):

She rode beside him to the court at morn,

By eve, her office stripped, her title torn.

"A wond'rous person" — so the king did say,

And with those honeyed words, he sent her away.

The Epstein files did vex him most of all;

No list upon her desk — yet there stood the wall.

She sought his foes indicted, brought to grief,

But justice lingered, and so did his relief.

Now Blanche ascends where Bondi held the seal,

And Zeldin waits to cut a better deal.

Thus ends the tenure of the loyal dame —

She served the king, and still, the king took aim.

Most of our lives are so busy, we never really stop and consider whether our thoughts are really ours, or more a product of our upbringing and our culture. While we have the freedom (for now) to think and do almost anything we set our minds to, the mind must have a beginning.

Ours begins in freedom. If America has a universal language, it's the language of freedom. We talk about it constantly; in our politics, what we buy, and what we listen to. We're free to say what we want, write what we want, post what we want, and, perhaps most sacredly, be as dumb and proud as we want to be.

It's an American birthright to believe in and spew bullshit.

But why is that?

It might be the most patriotic question we could possibly ask, because it forces a self-audit. How often are we mixing up freedom of thought with freedom from self-awareness? Where is it that intelligence and beliefs mix and match?

I grew up in a church. I understand the appeal of feeling sure about your thoughts and the emotional appeal of it. When you're surrounded by people who all agree that they're right, it becomes incredibly easy to stop questioning things. I've seen sermons where pastors claimed God told them exactly how the congregation should think on everything from politics to dating to clothing, and for a time, I nodded along. I was conditioned to believe those voices in authority were plugged into something higher. But at some point, I noticed that "the will of God" often looked suspiciously like the will of whoever was up there preaching.

That was my first real lesson in influence. There's a reason so much time and money is spent on marketing, presentation, and salesmanship. Tone of voice, timing, and word choice can be enough to convince people of what's sacred and what's ridiculous.

The Catholic tradition of burning white smoke to announce a new pope once made me laugh out loud. I mean, nothing says "divine appointment" like someone being tasked to literally go up and start a fire. Sacred smoke signals. There's something endearing and absurd about it as humanity uses ritual to make decisions appear divine. But then again, aren't we all lighting little puffs of smoke to make our choices look holier than they are?

I've worked in organizations that held meetings with the same tone as a church service. Scripted speeches, inspirational quotes, and PowerPoints glowing from a person from the top. The message, almost always: We care deeply about our people. Meanwhile, upper management quietly approved another round of bonuses or puts their own people in place (no merit need apply).

It's a form of religious capitalism. I remember one exec level saying, "We're like a family." It remains a family, of course, that cuts off your health insurance if you don't toe the line.

Most of us are trained to believe that hard work will be rewarded, that good character matters, that moral logic will somehow balance things out. But corporations, like churches, can lose their focus and thrive more on appearances. They want the look of virtue without the inconvenience of actually working for it.

This week, Oracle laid off another group of employees while the family that owns it spent billions building a media monopoly. It's at this intersection between what people project and what they practice that we have to ask: How much of what I accept as normal was designed to be accepted?

We assume our beliefs are ours, but in truth, they're crowd-sourced. They're shaped by family, religion, advertising campaigns, political slogans, social networks, even the layout of a grocery store nudging you toward certain products over others. The whole country runs on a constant signal of suggestion: what to desire, what to fear, what to worship. And the more confidently we say, "I think for myself," the more suspicious I become that someone else planted the seed.

That's why I try, at least occasionally, to play mental detective. When I find myself getting worked up about something, I stop and ask: Who benefits from me being upset right now? When I form a quick opinion, I wonder: Where did that come from? Was it earned, or inherited from someone else's anxiety?

This habit doesn't make me any more enlightened than anyone else, but it does keep me honest. And I suspect a lot of the dysfunction in our culture could be softened if more of us paused before giving too much reverence to our own thoughts.

If there's a modern creed worth living by, maybe it's this: Don't assume your thoughts are your own until you've proven it. We might find a kind of independence that no government or corporation can control.

The freedom of truly thinking for ourselves is what will protect freedom for all.

Keep an eye on this. The future of human transportation will involve more alternatives beyond private vehicles. As ownership costs continue to rise and the existing infrastructure doesn’t support options like high-speed bullet trains, we will see more choices such as this from Waymo and various autonomous systems. While in the long run, these developments will benefit energy efficiency and reduce living costs, without public policies to address job losses and basic incomes, there could be rough times ahead. If there's ever a moment we need true visionary leadership, it is now.

I want to bring this to your attention for how dangerous it is. We will look back on this time as a bleak period where our freely-elected government threatened an American company to be labeled as a foreign enemy. Why? Because it refused to go along with our military’s use of its technology. Anthropic, developer of Claude AI, is one of the very few big AI companies that is welcoming regulation, which is sorely needed, but there is a clear difference between regulation and manipulation. Remember that a defining feature of freedom is the freedom to disagree. If we have a government that wants everyone in lockstep to whatever the government in charge says, we will soon not have a constitution to defend.

ODE TO A WRECKING BALL

Ah, ye destructive force of time and place

Thou cleanser of the sewers and debris

Continue on thy crushing pace.

No matter where thou go

Leave the clutter in the streets

Loveliness must lose its glow

 Let no structure ever stand

Bring the nation to its knees

Allow the dark blight on the land

So great Ball of smoke and fire

Swing free from sea to sea

All should be within the mire.

Marc J. Yacht, MD, MPH

And Now….

I was happy to see a family of black-capped chickadees had moved back in. The leaves of the tangerine tree provide good concealment of the birdhouse.

Make sure you get a moment to listen to the birds.

Always strive to be a good human.