We are told to trust a lot of people.
Trust the experts.
Trust Science (is that . . . one person? Do all scientists agree?)
Trust the authorities. (The monarch? The priest? The government? Isn’t the whole point of America’s Independence Day story based upon a distrust of overreaching government?)
Trust the actors reading off the teleprompter while they sit behind the news desk.
Trust the think tanks, foundations, and “Non-profit” organizations with 3-5 capital letters.
But the one person we should trust, the one who has our best interests at heart, the one who does not operate with any conflicts of interest that go against our own interests, we are never told to trust:
Ourselves.
But we’re not the experts!
We’re not Scientists!
How can we possibly know enough to make a sound judgment for our best interests?
Well, if not us, then who?
How can any one person — a stranger — or even a committee, forum or panel of “experts” — all strangers — know enough to make life impacting decisions for — generally by imposing mandates upon — thousands, sometimes millions, and these days, billions of others?
They can’t, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.
And they have a better chance of succeeding when they demean and disparage the intelligence of individual people to ask questions, look at facts, sift through answers, and come to decisions on what they will eat, where they will work, what type of currency they recognize, what they will (or will not) wear, what medical treatment — if any — they choose, how they will raise and protect their children, and thousands of other day to day decisions that ultimately impact our individual lives.
In short, it is freedom of choice.
And that choice is ours, as it has been throughout history. We can choose to listen to, passively accept, and obey the dictates of the experts, the authorities, the panels and forums and organizations with 3-5 letters, or we can assert our independence as free, intelligent human beings, living on a planet with other free, intelligent human beings, and live like free, intelligent, compassionate, decent human beings.
But we have to trust ourselves that we can do it.
Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. I incorporate the artwork of my husband, Steve Henderson, with thoughts on truth, goodness, life, light, and hope. Click on the image in the article to purchase prints or products featuring the artwork. Find all of Steve’s prints at SteveHendersonCollections.com.
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