Are we thinking... or repeating?

Someone entered a council and put forward an opinion that seemed so confident that objecting to it appeared as ignorance. Before long, the council was filled with supporters, and arguments piled up until those present were led to believe that truth had been reached. A few days later, I attended another council, and found the same opinion had flipped into its opposite. Astonishingly, the same faces were nodding in agreement, the same enthusiasm filled the voices, and the same confidence remained unchanged. At that point, I did not ask: Which of the two opinions is correct? Instead, I asked: Did conviction follow truth, or did it follow whoever spoke last? That question revealed to me that the most dangerous affliction of the mind is not making a mistake, but ceasing to perform its function while believing it is doing so. Thinking is exhausting, whereas repetition is comfortable; expressing a ready-made opinion is far easier than constructing a new one. Therefore, many ideas do not spread because they are stronger, but because they are more widely circulated. The paradox is that blatant lies often awaken caution, whereas an idea repeated quietly slips into the mind without resistance. It does not ask you to believe it, but merely to hear it again and again, until one day you think you have arrived at it yourself, while in reality it has arrived at you. Consequently, we often repeat many expressions without knowing when we first became convinced of them. They recur in upbringing, management, politics, economics, and relationships, until they transform from debatable opinions into axioms that are difficult to approach. Not because they triumphed through argument, but because they triumphed through habit. Here lies the difference that shapes intellectual independence. Thinking does not begin with the answer, but with doubt about it. It does not seek what confirms conviction, but what might refute it. Repetition, on the other hand, cares less about the truth of an idea than about its familiarity. Thus, while people may differ in their opinions, they resemble each other in the manner in which they adopt them. Perhaps the most insidious effect of repetition is that it does not deprive humans of freedom, but gives them the illusion of it. They believe they have chosen, when in fact they have merely repeated a choice previously made for them by others. When I left that council, I was not preoccupied with the opinion that prevailed nor the one that was defeated. One question remained with me: How many ideas do I believe represent me, while they are in fact merely a prolonged echo of what I have grown accustomed to hearing?