Is the unexamined life not worth living? I believe it is essential for us to question ourselves and the world around us, to question why we do things and why others do the things they do. Through questions we can slowly find out what is true and what is not true. For you to be in control of yourself and your own actions you must be able to know the justification or reasons why you do certain things. If not, it is often the case that you are just doing what another tells you to do. You are in their control and are essentially their pawn.
Many different ideas come into our brains from different sources, and, without critically examining these ideas, putting them through a mental test so to speak, we can fall victim to what is not beneficial for us. Ignorance may be bliss, as the saying goes, but it can lead not just that person but the rest of society into a worse situation. For example, if we questioned our government’s decision to go to war in Iraq and did not openly accept it as the government gave it to us, how it was a war protecting America from weapons of mass destruction and a war for spreading democracy in the Middle East, then we would have probably been able to make a more prudent decision. Ignorance and not questioning what is going on can lead to poor decisions. By questioning what has been done, I believe that we can become wiser with our decisions. Ultimately, I believe that if someone is living in a situation of untruth, influenced by it everywhere, the only way to rise out of something like that is to question everything until that person realizes what they once thought to be true was not.
“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.” This quote from Indira Gandhi exemplifies how without examination we will not be able to do away with our fallacies that still control our actions and hold us back. Questioning a belief can help support it with more sound reasoning or make it crumble because of lack thereof.
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