There are prisons of brick, iron and barbed wire, and then there are prisons invisible, ethereal, yet no less confining. The human mind, that most exquisite instrument in the orchestra of creation, is capable of composing its own bars and bolting its own doors. This is the tragedy of self-indoctrination: the quiet, relentless process by which we convince ourselves into captivity, singing our chains into song until we call them freedom.

We often mistake indoctrination as a purely external force — the preacher, the propagandist, the politician, the algorithm. But the most enduring indoctrination comes not from without, but from within. It is the slow daily ritual of confirming one’s prejudices, of telling and retelling oneself the same story until it hardens into identity. One does not need a dictator when one can be one’s own.

And here lies the tragedy compounded: for while self-indoctrination supplies the interior walls, society obligingly supplies the locks. The courage to peer above the parapet, to question, to doubt, is punished not with reasoned debate but with ostracism, shame, and the withering ire of one’s peers. How much easier it is to chant in unison than to raise one’s voice in dissonance. Conformity is rewarded with applause, while dissent is met with suspicion, hostility, or worse. It is little wonder so few dare it.

Critical thinking, that most glorious of human faculties, is thus quietly euthanized. Its crime? Impoliteness. To question the slogans of one’s tribe is to risk being branded a traitor. To ask for evidence is to invite excommunication. And so, whole communities, whole nations, fall silent in the presence of dogma, preferring the balm of belonging to the sting of truth.

This, of course, is not new. Socrates was made to drink hemlock for his trouble. Galileo was shown the instruments of torture for daring to suggest the earth moved. The courage to think critically has........

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