Why Do We Fear Our Minds? by Butler Shaffer

Why are we so in fear of our minds that we want the state – or other institutions – to define the parameters of our thinking for us? It is to deny our own rational capacities to suggest that others should take care of our thinking. The horrors of the Inquisition ought to have taught us that people should not be burned at the stake – or imprisoned – for disputing established opinions, no matter how outrageous or offensive we find their words to be. The practice of fastening chains upon the bodies of men and women was only made possible by the creation and enforcement of chains upon their minds.