The Hardest Task in the World

Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

"What is the hardest task in the world? To Think."

How can that be? Why is that so? Or, isn't it true???

Let begin by looking up for the definitions of the word "Think" in the web dictionary":-

1. judge or regard; look upon;
2. expect, believe, or suppose;
3. use or exercise the mind or one's power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution or judgments;
4. remember: recall knowledge from memory; have a recollection;
5. imagine or visualize;
6. focus one's attention on a certain state;
7. intend: have in mind as a purpose;
8. decide by pondering, reasoning, or reflecting;
9. ponder; reflect on, or reason about;
10. dispose the mind in a certain way;
11. have or formulate in the mind;
12. be capable of conscious thought;
13. bring into a given condition by mental preoccupation;
14. an instance of deliberate thinking;

On the surface, "Thinking" seems to be a task that we are doing all day long. And, if we were to look into it more detail... Many of the Thoughts that we are thinking are not ours at all, I mean that most of the Thoughts, by most people, are NOT originated by themselves, if any at all. In this information age, we are bombarded with information by the Media, and we process the information based on our beliefs; Just like a computer process the input data based on a pre-programmed algorithm to get the output. In computer term, there is a acronym, 'GIGO' -- 'Garbage In, Garbage Out'. Likewise, 'garbage information' would lead to 'garbage behavior' for those who expose themselves to the media.

As the saying goes, "As a man thinketh, So is he."
With the same token, "As the citizens thinketh, so the country."

Therefore, when the Major Medias are consolidated and controlled by less number of corporations, the public would have less opportunity to get different views/information on any matter or subject. The worse case would be: When some corporation control the media, it control the public thinking, -- or simply put --> control the mind of the public.

To sum up, distorted information would lead to distorted thinking, which would then lead to wrong decision and do the wrong things. For example, looking back on the "reasons" that called for wars in the history... Such as going after the "Mass Destructive Weapon" to protect "World Peace", etc...

One way to ensure this do not happen is to have every one to be able to think more independently. Yes, it may seem easier to say than done... As we can't always control the circumstances. But we can control our own thoughts. :-D

“In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost

every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination,

from authorities who have not themselves examined

the questions at issue, but have taken them at

second-hand from other non-examiners,

whose opinions about them were

not worth a brass farthing.”

– Mark Twain

More... With explanation...

Collector Edition.... :-D