The wonderful thing about attending a University as a student is the ability to challenge and be challenged. This phenomenon does not only apply to one’s workload or abilities but it also applies to morals and principles.
I have recently run into many of my fellow students who have been very obstinate about their personal ideas, which is a wonderful thing. However, this is only a wonderful thing after those personal ideas have been challenged and defended. How can you really trust something unless it has been tested?
Let go of past convictions and experiences brought from home. Your racism, sexism, ageism and any other ism’s you may have acquired from high school friends, family and other previous associates have no place in college. Like Timothy Leary used to say “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Lend yourself to the idea of new experiences.
Where has man’s innate need for knowledge and experience gone? It seems that with the fairly recent development of the Internet we no longer challenge our own beliefs or others. Take for example the fact that every now and then a celebrity will be reported dead every few months via Twitter. Is there any validity to this? Of course not, but people seem to retweet and believe these things anyway. What about those fake quotes credited to historical figures like Adolph Hitler and Abraham Lincoln that a friend will post on Facebook, why do students never seem to question these?
In the times of ancient Greece, men would wander around marketplaces and city streets discussing everything from gossip to political and philosophical theories. These discussions did not have the support of the Internet or other reference materials that they do now. In order to verify information an individual would have to prove his or her argument a priori or using only logic.
Greco-Roman culture taught us how to verify our thoughts and feelings. The counterculture movement of the late 60’s taught us to let go of our previously held assumptions and open our minds to the new experiences that await us in our quest for knowledge. I challenge you to take time this week and challenge yourself. Try something entirely new, join a club or an organization, go to a new bar and introduce yourself to a new student. One thing is certain; we can never progress as human beings unless we choose to start walking. The longer we stay stagnant as students the more opportunities for growth pass us by.
Now I am not asking you to try LSD for the first time, nor am I telling you to go to church and get your life in order. However, I am not instructing you to avoid these things either. All I suggest is that you try something new; don’t accept what people have taught you at point blank. University is a time to learn for yourself the age-old adages you have been raised with. Question authority!
One thing is certain; we can never progress as human beings unless we choose to start walking.
Early on in my collegiate career I came across a quote I hope never to forget:
“There is a principle that is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” -Herbert Spencer
