Why thinking is good

Have you ever noticed how much our lives are tied in with other human beings? We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. But more importantly, most of our knowledge and beliefs have been formulated by others and communicated to us through the medium of a language - also created by others. Without language our mental capacities would probably equal that of animals. Therefore, the simple fact that we were lucky enough to be born into human society gives us a distinct advantage over ordinary beasts.
We can decide to be whatever we want (in most cases), but we have the significance of being a member of a great human community, which directs our material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave. Therefore, our value to the community depends primarily on how far our feelings, thoughts and actions are directed toward promoting the good of our fellows. “The good,” or “the bad,” in this respect has to do with the person’s attitude and sincerity of his thoughts and actions.

However, an individual’s social contributions are not the greatest value they can contribute to society. The most valuable achievements, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society, have already been brought about in the course of countless generations by creative individuals. Someone already discovered the use of fire, the wheel, the cultivation of edible plants, and the steam engine. Everything necessary has been created so the likelihood of you creating something new that is totally necessary to human civilization is probably zero. Therefore, if people’s worth’s depended solely on their social contribution then people are unnecessary and expendable. Might as well slap a military uniform on them and have them march to foreign lands to the sound of blaring trumpets.

But the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion. If people’s minds are corralled by politicians, media executives, or other people in positions of tremendous power, the individual no longer as anything meaningful to contribute to society and are simply clockwork oranges.