Wanting to change your thought process is also a vital step to discovering your true intelligence. While in our mindless states we have no reason to learn about the world around us. Why should we, when everything is supplied for us if we obey? “’To learn is hard work. It requires discipline. And there is much drudgery. When I hear someone say that learning is fun, I wonder if that person has never learned or . . . just never had fun. There are moments of excitement in learning; these seem usually to come after long periods of hard work…’” (p. 197). Perhaps this is why so many of us are guilty of not thinking for ourselves. It requires very little effort to do something that someone has told you to do than it does to think critically. You may even argue that all your friends exhibit the same behavior, so where is the harm in mindlessly obeying? Aldous Huxley (2012) states, “The crowd-intoxicated individual escapes from responsibility, intelligence and morality into a kind of frantic, animal mindlessness” (p. 249). With mindless obedience we become nothing more than animals. But if we have the desire to think for ourselves and are willing to put forth the effort there is nothing that can stop you from accomplishing this …show more content…
To some of us that can be a very scary thing, having to grow up and make decisions for ourselves. But it is the only way to take control of your life. When you rely on others you must abide by their wishes and wants. According to Marilyn Arnold (2012) in her essay “Unlocking the Sacred Text” “…opposition makes possible the exercise of agency and is therefore a vital aspect of the plan of salvation” (p.19). The use of free-agency is what makes the plan of salvation possible. Without it we would never learn right and wrong and wouldn’t grow as children of God. Thinking for yourself is a critical part of the plan of salvation, when we give up the right to choose and think for ourselves we give up our salvation. In Hugh Nibley’s (2012) essay “Zeal without Knowledge” he quotes Arthur Clarke (1962) saying “’ Probably 99 percent of human ability has been wholly wasted, even today we operate . . . most of our time as automatic machines, and glimpse the profounder resources of our minds only once or twice in a lifetime’” (p.