Thinking is a habit. Like smoking. You get used to thinking and then your consciousness automatically reaches for thinking like a hand for a cigarette. You don't even ask yourself if and how harmful it can be for you. But power is also a habit. More harmful to the environment than smoking. And while we think out of habit, power has a habit of persecuting thinking. So much so that, following the example of the infamous speaker of the parliament ("who dares to be a mother"), it would change Descartes' maxim to: I think, therefore I do not exist.
But of course, a person without an opinion can exist. Especially in power. Here is the new future prime minister, for example. The last person in that position to have an opinion was the current president of Serbia. Everyone else, at the top of all three branches of government, has the habit of going to the central committee for an opinion (except for the indigenous high opinion of themselves) or waiting for it to come to them via TV screens, social networks, Viber groups, message boxes or an angry phone call.
And why should they think for themselves when thinking for someone else is more comfortable and safer. Safer and more profitable. Why should they, after all these years, now get used to thinking as if they will need it someday. Yeah, just like we needed sine and cosine after school. Especially the square over the hypotenuse. Maybe just the "friend of my enemy" thing from all the math classes, but even that has changed with politics. In no time, someone will fly over from the enemy camp and now you have to figure out the equation.
On the other hand, those who are not used to thinking, mostly think logically. If – then. If I study, I will finish school, if I finish school, I will find a better job. Okay, bad example, if I study, I will end up in prison, that is more appropriate under this government. And if I have a party card, then I can do as I please – an aunt from Canada, complete idiots from Savamala, a best man from McLaren, just for illustration when it is not for the court. Logical thinking, therefore, does not give a logical result. If you are standing on the sidewalk, it does not mean that you will not be run over by a crazy driver. At the same time, if you copy everything that students do, it does not mean that you will achieve their success. (Someone nicely noted that the President of Serbia has not yet set off on foot to Strasbourg, but – let's be realistic, what is stopping him from calling us from there tomorrow with a bicycle helmet on his head and triumphantly announcing that he arrived faster, stronger, better than them?)
What he cannot copy from students is their lateral thinking. Thinking sideways rather than straight-line, thinking "outside the box", thinking where the "then" does not logically follow from the "if" but starts from the question: what will happen if I try something completely different? Humor, for example, is a product of lateral thinking, it is funny because the outcome is completely unexpected and we did not expect such an ending to the joke at all.
Speaking of the end, the saying goes that everything will be fine in the end, and if it's not fine right now, it just means it's not the end yet.
Bonus video:
