When one is devoted to reason, one is freed from bondage to the errors of others--and also from fearing their rejection. And with freedom from their errors comes recognition that their approval is utterly meaningless. One of the most liberating side effects of rationalism for me is that I have a deep confidence, a confidence that extends down into every part of my life, one that leaves me without any fear over whether or not the truths I know are accepted or denied by others. This confidence, a foundation of internal assurance, is a security in the truth that is unaffected by how other people respond or act.
Confidence is one of the most empowering things a person can experience, and the firmest confidence can only be obtained from a right understanding of reality. This is something only rationalism can impart. Without rationalism one is adrift in uncertainty and assumptions. With it, one can be prepared to face popular delusions. With it, one looks to truth and not acceptance by other people.
I care nothing for their feelings, preferences, traditions, assumptions, or fallacious objections. I loathe the very people themselves quite often. It is not that I hate those who are walking on the path to truth and yet are stumbling along the way, but that I hate those who refuse to acknowledge blatant errors, instead persisting in believing outright impossibilities or in things that cannot possibly be verified, even after multiple corrections.
Because of rationalism I can look at others, see the common idiocies of the masses, and know that I am not like them. Intellectual freedom is being right (therefore being free from submission to errors) and knowing that you are right. It can bring the most secure kind of confidence--knowledge that you do not need to be trapped in the same stupidity that so often engulfs others, a knowledge which can so easily accompany security rooted in the truth and not their fictions.
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