"Let’s revisit the Scientific Revolution. The great achievement of the Scientific Revolution was the ability to question what seems obvious. That’s a difficult step to take, especially in a world where we tend to take things for granted.

For example, we take it for granted that the highest goal in life is to get a job. When speaking to a young person seeking advice, we often tell them to ensure they acquire the skills that will allow them to secure a job after graduation. But Galileo was questioning whether we should accept the prevailing ideas about the world, such as the belief that objects fall because the ground is their natural place. Should we accept this idea, or should we challenge it and subject it to further analysis?

We could ask the same question about the concept of getting a job. This isn’t a new question. For over two millennia, up until the 19th century, the idea of getting a job was regarded as a fundamental attack on basic human rights and dignity. Why? Because getting a job meant accepting servitude to a master. It meant saying, "I will rent myself to you for most of my waking life, and I will follow your orders during this time." This was seen as an abomination.

By now, it’s almost taken for granted. But should we accept it as a given? Or should we revisit the ideals of working people, classical liberals, Cicero, and even Abraham Lincoln, who argued that this is not a decent way for humans to live? People should have control over their own work and their own destiny.

One of the founders of classical liberalism, Wilhelm von Humboldt, put this point very clearly. He said, imagine an artisan who creates a beautiful object on command as part of a job. We may admire the object, but we despise the person who created it—a tool in the hands of others. This belief was widely held throughout the 19th century. In fact, it was so common that it became a slogan of Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party. What was then referred to as "wage slavery" was seen as akin to slavery itself, except temporary, until one gained their freedom.

But we’ve lost this perspective. We now accept that putting oneself into servitude, renting oneself out for labor, is one of the highest goals in life—an idea that would have been considered an abomination for two thousand years.

This is precisely the kind of thing we should question. There are many things we simply take for granted, and the ability to question them—to be puzzled and open-minded—is not only the foundation of scientific advancement but also essential for progress in our lives toward greater freedom and justice. These are the kinds of questions that should always be raised. And when we raise them, we find new horizons opening up that we hadn’t considered before.

The ability to question and be puzzled is something we don’t have to cultivate in young children; they already have it naturally. Anyone who has spent time with young children knows they are constantly asking “why?” In fact, it can get irritating, but they’re right—they want to understand, not just accept things as they are. We should not drive this natural curiosity out of people’s minds.

Yet much of our education system stifles this instinct, pushing children and students to obey. The most extreme version of this is the prevalent practice of teaching to the test. Education is no longer about helping students learn, but about ensuring they pass an exam. We’ve all experienced this: taking a course you’re not interested in, studying hard just to pass the test, only to forget everything you learned two weeks later.

That is the worst form of education—it eliminates the very capacity that should be cultivated: the ability to question, to be puzzled, to ask "why?" and not be satisfied with the answer that "it’s obvious." This is precisely the kind of thing that should be questioned. So yes, there’s a lot at stake in all of this.

NC