Learn by ourselves, or through others? What’s best?
Who can truly say? It is likely always a mix.
However, I think that the growing irrationality of our times stems from the latter. It is a great shame of our times that our educational and political systems feel entitled to assume the role of “wise” explainers (seeking to establish their view of reality in our minds).
True reality is immensely wide and confoundingly detailed. Expansive societies need a careful and growing understanding of it. This is so our social systems can justly support the expanding multitudes harmoniously. Our educational and political systems need every capable brain solving this puzzle. True leaders must develop and encourage individual problem solving. So long as we minimally accomplish this developmental task, we can hold it together. If, on the other hand, individual problem solving falls into disuse, the irrational people will assume control and oppression will be everywhere. Society will again contract until the number of actual problem solvers are sufficient to support its new reduced size.
