Thinking as a Task

“Man can think in the sense that he possesses the possibility to do so. This possibility alone, however, is no guarantee to us that we are capable of thinking. For we are capable of doing only what we are inclined to do.” (M. Heidegger: What Calls For Thinking)

              To think is a task and if it is a task, then it is not just a mere passing state but an act. Being conscious during the moment is different from thinking and many mistook a mere presence as the arduous intellectual task of thinking. Sadly, the prowess of intellectual activities has been equated and measured through stacking so many things in memory. To recall is different from thinking. But what is to think? Are we really thinking if we limit ourselves to the things we are inclined to? If we are inclined to some things are we just simply recalling? If we are inclined already to some things, are we really thinking or are we just following what is there already as a given? The challenge is to create, to mold, to innovate, but so far it is easy to simply follow and accept what is given without a thought.

              Thinking is equivalent to critiques as critiques imply the human shaping and molding of the world. If humanity does not critique, then humanity renders the world static and unchangeable and submits to the order presented. “Philosophers have interpreted the world but the point is to change it,” says Marx. Granting that philosophers have spent most of their time thinking but thinking in an ivory tower is not at all the course to take and to remain. Thinking is a step to the practical and must culminate in application. “It is the critique that measures the individual existence by the essence, the particular reality by the Idea.” (K. Marx: To Make the World Philosophical: Ruthless Criticism to Everything Existing) Ideas must solidify in reality in order to test their worth and one cannot generate the ideas if one does not think and more so, ruthlessly critique. The aim is not to be ‘the philosopher’ but the main point is to live out what it means to be a thinking being. However, thinking and critiquing yet remains a possibility for the vast majority.

              We are situated in an undeniably wretched world. Some say we have to accept it as an irreversible and inevitable fate of humanity, and that we can do nothing about it. These people who merely accept the given never learned that slavery was placed under the razor of critiques that made many historical events leading to the liberation of slaves. The development of science was a critique of the absolutist claims of religion that shaped the future of science and technological advancements. The world changed because of the efforts of man to think, to critique, and pave ways in order the make the ideal real. Education has long ever claimed that its mission is to make people critically think; however, it has turned out that the culture placed made more obedient automatons rather than individuals who can creatively contribute. There are those who preach and teach critical thinking yet are facing clamor from those whose brain capacity is limited to obedience. Even political thinkers see the necessity of civil disobedience coming from critiques of the status quo as the step to reevaluate a given socio-political order. Thinking is indeed a task and just like exercising, some are just fond of the idea of working out but not actually flexing to sweat.

              Sadly, the student populace is plagued with apathy and misplaced and directionless dissent. There has never been truly a community spirit that bonds students as one other than the fact that they just belong to the same school. Apathy is the result of people refusing to be conscious, to think, and to critique. ‘Directionlessness’ is the result of not thinking harder and critiquing more. It may appear that thinking and 'critiquing' disturbs and destroys the status quo; however, the point is not just to subject to destruction but to create. We deconstruct in order to reconstruct. Protest but also suggest. Question adamantly yet propose what one can offer. All of these presupposes thinking. Yet again, how many can do such? How many can actively build a future and not just be swayed by the flow of time?

              Students, when will we think? When will we build a student community? When will you think about it? Is it high time to organize as one student body? Is it high time to actively change the static student community that we have right now? If so, think further and then build. We hated the politics outside our school because of rigged elections, corruption, and incompetence but if we cannot try to address the similar situation we have right now, how can you even change a larger playing field? Think what is best for all students and in time, you will start to turn thinking into a habit and then think what is best for our people. Having thought such, then we have a map to change the 'now.' Let us have a play of thought coming from Noam Chomsky’s Responsibility of Intellectuals and Francis Bacon’s “knowledge is power”. If knowledge is generated from rigorous thinking, then when one starts to think then one enters into a task that one ought to be responsible for. When we think, we think for ourselves and for others. When great thinking comes great responsibility. Great thinking comes with a great ability to respond. Respond in order to change.