Cognitive Styles 25First, the average individual feels much safer following the
programming of others. Doing „my own thing‟ is risky. I might fail, or be
condemned by the rest of society. Second, society feels much more secure
when individuals follow established patterns and do not „rock the boat‟ of
social convention. If people are given too much freedom, then the result
could conceivably be total anarchy. Third, plotting my own course takes a
lot of thinking, preparation and hard work. Following some predetermined
channel is much easier.
Finally, there is the hurdle of
prior commitment. As a society,
we have invested trillions of
dollars and billions of man-years
setting up a system of existence
based upon „broadcasting‟ and
„receiving.‟ We have established
exactly who are the
„broadcasters,‟ how an individual
becomes a „broadcaster‟ and how
he should act as a „broadcaster.‟
We have developed countless channels through which a „studio‟ can get its
message across to the masses. And we know all of the emotional „hot
buttons‟ to press in order to get the optimal response from each „television
viewer.‟ Changing our way of operating would mean abandoning all of this
societal infrastructure.
It is precisely these issues which we will attempt to address in this
book: How do we graduate from being mental „users‟ who only choose
between existing channels, to being mental „broadcasters‟ who can develop
our own programs and gain some control over the content of our lives. I
should emphasize that this is not an easy process. Post-communist Eastern
Europe has shown us that people cannot handle instant freedom. They
must have some type of transitional mental and societal structure.
The path to freedom is a long, hard road. At the beginning, our need for
passive stimulation is still high and our ability to choose rather small. What
we will attempt to do in this book is to outline the various stages of mental
freedom, show which choices are possible at each step, and describe which
decisions will lead from where we are to greater freedom.
Free will and cognitive style are strongly related. My experience is that
when a person goes through life passively, then his cognitive style is often
difficult to determine. The cause is rather obvious. If an individual never
uses conscious effort to mold the furniture of his mental house, but rather
accepts all of the furniture which is given to him by his environment, then
it will be hard to discern which room really is conscious. In some societies,
the cocoon of nurture is so stifling that it becomes impossible for
individuals to break out of the mold and to discover who they really are. It
is only when a person gains the freedom to become himself that cognitive