George Carlin said it best:
www.goodreads.com/quotes/96464...

We use these terms to broadly at times. Ppl who sow chaos without a greater purpose shouldn't be called Revolutionaries. Calling them that gives their actions more weight. Revolutionaries have a thought out purpose and plan for the system they want to replace the one they are rebelling against.

Our certainty is based on our confidence that we or our collective has chosen an accurate expert. In general collectives are good at elevating expertise. Its only when leaders in a collective askew expertise and force a filter on information to gain power that we have a problem.

If "false certainty" means anything that we have not concretely proven ourselves, then 100% of ppl live in "false certainty". It's impossible to prove everything ourselves. As individuals or collectives we rely on experts, who in turn rely on other experts.

We spend too much time trying to figure out how to get everyone to agree on one way. But this will never work. What we need to think about is the optimum equilibrium of mind sets.

Charles Van Doren

I only know him from the "Quiz Show" movie with Ralph Fiennes 🙂

I agree with everything you said. My only point was that listening is and additional companion to “open mindedness” but it is not emphasised as much as I think it should be.

My question for ppl who say they are not concerned is, "When will you be?", one of the first major steps towards true dictatorship is the silencing of opposing media. If you take the "I'll believe it when I see it" approach it will be too late.

This is not strictly true. It is clear that Trump plans to act more aggressively in his next term. As seen by the types of people he plans to install in key positions. One scenario, he can appoint a sycophant to be head of the FCC and order them to revoke the broadcast licenses to CNN, MSNBC etc..

Ppl talk a lot about having an open mind, and I agree it is vitally important. But less is said about having "open ears". Learning to truly listen to other ppl is a skill that is sorely lacking these days.

Yeah, it was the first book where I thought, "Wait a minute. Non-fiction can be informative, entertaining and fun?"

Is there a list we can add to, or a preferred way to suggest topics?

The vast majority of people are somewhere in the middle allowing them to be controlled by conformity

Our biggest problem is not deciding on the form of government, it is coming to a collective agreement on what is “Ideal”

I think mine is the 1st generation in my family with no military. Otherwise, starting with my Dad I can trace back all the way to the Revolutionary War