Liberty From Societal Conditioning

Whoever has not systematically embraced rationalism is an inevitable hostage to personal assumptions or societal conditioning, no matter how true those assumptions may turn out to be.  The person who simply relies on assumptions, of course, is likely oblivious even to the fact that their worldview rests entirely on blind and arbitrary beliefs.  Ignorance of this can lead to a self-perpetuating cycle, especially when an entire civilization is immersed in it.

Since many people find it more appealing to identify with a great portion of their culture's random and potentially self-contradictory ideas than to exercise intellectual autonomy, it is hardly unusual to find that few are willing to even consider that philosophical assumptions have no epistemological value.  Certainty, liberation, and originality (in the form of autonomous reasoning at the very least) await all who are willing to side with reason, yet the majority has chosen to remain on a path of ignorance, inconsistency, and apathy.

Apart from a rationalistic evaluation of one's full belief system--one that is accompanied by an utter rejection of that which cannot be proven--one is nothing more than a product of one's own fallacies and any which may have been inherited from one's society.  Perhaps one's worldview may be correct, but there is absolutely no guarantee until one has held up everything to the light of reason after realizing the self-verifying nature of logic.  There is no other way to obtain liberty from societal conditioning (not that anyone has to succumb to it to begin with).

Beyond intellectual competence, though, there is much to gain from rationalism on a subjective level, and not merely on an objective one.  While alignment with reason brings certainty, it can also bring relief; while reason brings accuracy, it can also bring empowerment.  Logical truths are objectively correct and it is objectively useful to be familiar with them in both a philosophical and practical sense, but the benefits of rationalism can be deeply personal as well.

Of course, the very nature of logical truths is that they are true no matter what a group's collective attitude towards them is.  If truth matters, subjective appreciation of reason is secondary at best to its intrinsic veracity, not to mention the way in which it lifts one out of error and ignorance.  The only way to ensure one is not enslaved to individual or cultural preferences is to recognize that reason alone can deliver people from a sea of uncertainty, abandon any ideas that cannot be logically established as true, and remain consistent from that point onward.