I agree with your diagnosis, but disagree with your recommended treatment. Yes, we should stop trying to seem like original thinkers. But we should not start trying to be original thinkers.
How can this be, if there are still new truths to be discovered?
In my experience, when setting out to create something, if you aim to do it right, and if you take this goal seriously, then you will inevitably find yourself making something original—without ever making the slightest effort to be original, per se. (If this sounds paradoxical—surely “doing it right” is the most powerful and stable attractor, surely everyone else is also trying to do it right, and will thus converge on the same design?—then I regret to say that you are insufficiently cynical[1].)
Likewise, if you aim to think correctly, and if you take this goal seriously, you will find yourself having original thoughts.
(Is this an original sentiment? Not at all. But does that make it more likely to be true, or less? And surely the latter question is by far the more important one?)
I agree with your diagnosis, but disagree with your recommended treatment. Yes, we should stop trying to seem like original thinkers. But we should not start trying to be original thinkers.
How can this be, if there are still new truths to be discovered?
In my experience, when setting out to create something, if you aim to do it right, and if you take this goal seriously, then you will inevitably find yourself making something original—without ever making the slightest effort to be original, per se. (If this sounds paradoxical—surely “doing it right” is the most powerful and stable attractor, surely everyone else is also trying to do it right, and will thus converge on the same design?—then I regret to say that you are insufficiently cynical[1].)
Likewise, if you aim to think correctly, and if you take this goal seriously, you will find yourself having original thoughts.
(Is this an original sentiment? Not at all. But does that make it more likely to be true, or less? And surely the latter question is by far the more important one?)
Or, if you like, “have not fully grasped the inadequacy of our civilization”.