I’m a free thinker… although most of the time I shut up, and so far there has not been much “soapboxing” on this blog

I am an atheist but I still believe a few things (in no particular order, what I could think of just now)
* the wonder for life and the universe
* the value and dignity of people, at all ages and in all cultures
* the value of education, knowledge and skills, and that we need to try to excel and we need to try to help others develop and excel in what makes them feel fulfilled
* the value of imagination and creativity, and what it does for the human spirit and society
* the value of craft and skill, and a belief that they are undervalued in our day and age
* the value of originality and diversity, non comformism and challenging received ideas
* a belief that people can organise and take care of themselves if just given the space and opportunity (although that can take time)
* a strong rejection of the idea that injustice and inequality are a normal thing and that it would cost societe too dearly to do anything about it

One thing that strikes me over and over is how it takes so little to allow people to interact and empower themselves… and so little to treat them like numbers and shut them off. I believe that at some level people are able to empower themselves, organise themselves, but that a lot of things in modern life combine to try to keep up distracted, dizzy, upset about non-news that hide the real issues, manipulated and disenfranchised.
Now I dont mean there’s a conspiracy, I think it just happened over time… but this state of affairs does benefit a lot of people.

So yes, I get really annoyed at all these things in the world that try to prevent us from thinking for ourselves, feed us belief and opinion and trying to prevent us from questioning and applying critical thought… As a result I’m a bit of a debater and I like playing devil’s advocate, because no opinion is ever 100% right, and forcing people to clarify their thinking and justify their ideas is always good… I especially like challenging common platitudes, and received opinions, the kind of things people say without ever thinking about it, the thoughts we were “fed” to think.

And I get really wound up when I see all the things in the world today which seem to be dedicated to suppressing people’s curiosity and their ability to learn and question, create and think for themselves… all the messages out there dumbing people down, especially children and young people, telling us the world is too complicated for peons like us, leave it to the technocrats, culture is too high for normal people, leave it to the specialist… Well I am a technocrat and you know what, rocket science is not *that* complicated…