We Need to Overcome Ideological Thinking

I have learnt that there is a common tendency for people to distort their experiences to fit into their preconceived ideological thoughts. To me, such people are not free-thinking. Such people do not think independently and have little individuality and creativity. Such people do not perceive reality in an accurate, healthy way. They do not try to understand something for what it is, but reflexively apply their established, ideological concepts onto everything in a robotic fashion. In this way, such people are not open-minded or receptive, quite the opposite. I have also learnt that this phenomena occurs on all sides of the political spectrum, though in varying degrees depending on where you look.

Unfortunately, most of the people who need to internalise these ideas will be those who are most resistant to them, and the person who points out uncomfortable truths is often seen as an enemy. I am reminded here of Carl Jung's view that the biggest threat to humanity is what he calls a "psychic epidemic", whereby people lose the capacity to think in a healthy, coherent way, thus losing connection to reality. Truly confronting reality, after all, is not an easy task. It is like facing up to an almighty dragon. To use Carl Jung again "the most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely".

It is my view that "the truth will set you free". I strongly feel that if more people had a more evidence-based, accurate view of what is going on, human societies would be far healthier and happier. This entails overcoming ideological thought and moving beyond political boundaries. But many people, from what I have observed, are not willing to do this. 

We live in an extremely opinionated and defensive age. This has been exacerbated by social media. It seems that on social media many people react in an extreme, unintelligent and vapid way. I do not see enough thoughtfulness, self-reflection or nuance on social media. Maybe people deem these qualities to be boring or unfashionable?

Even if ideological, defensive people have good intentions, their thoughts and actions only contribute to a cycle of polarisation, division and avoidable conflict. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". 

As far as I am concerned, it is only when people start truly thinking for themselves that human societies will get better. It is only when people start overcoming their egotistical, knee-jerk reactions that we will start really learning about the world. It is only when enough people become well-rounded and integrated that we will start developing healthily as a species.