The Importance of Thinking Twice
The Importance of Thinking Twice We live in a reactionary world. That’s simply the way it is now. Someone says something or does something and around the world people React. They get quite fervent in their reactions and the reaction builds and then suddenly it becomes a Thing. But I do wonder how many of these Things would not develop in the way they do at all if people just stopped and thought twice . Because it isn’t the first thought you have that matters. It’s the second . The great Sir Terry Pratchett has beaten me to this insight, of course, in his Tiffany Aching books. But I shall do my best to clumsily articulate it all the same. Our first reaction to anything is instinct. It’s born of our culture, our upbringing, our influences, our religion, even deep, primal emotions – it’s the thought that comes without even thinking about it. So, for example, if you grew up in a time when or a place where, for example, homosexuality was considered unacceptable then one’s first...