Unifying through mindless conformity

There are a lot of Americans who want to unite this country by uniting belief systems. If we all believe the same things, we are no longer divided. One way we can do this is push everyone through a single rigid schooling system. If this common influence can mold everyone's minds to embrace the same beliefs, we will be more united than ever before.

There are serious problems with this approach. Among them is that this form of unity is dependent on mindlessness conformity. Those who think for themselves will never match every single component of these unified beliefs. As a result, society accepts only those who have nothing to contribute mentally.

I should also mention that this is the pursuit of an impossible goal. Perhaps we can increase the number of people who unify around these beliefs, but we will never reach 100%. You can't convince every single American to abandon thought. Increased conformity leads to increased hostilities to outliers. Individuals are treated worse than ever before.

On top of all of this, who determines which beliefs we unify around? I have seen arguments to make this democratic. Arguments have been made that schooling is the democratic approach to education because it allows the people to vote on these values.

Even worse, attempts to unify beliefs nationwide require government involvement. Politicians typically want power. If they can influence beliefs, they will frequently push subservience over societal benefit.

Obviously, I don't believe in uniting this country by uniting beliefs. I am far more interested in embracing tolerance towards mental diversity. I want to live in a mentally active society where people have unique thoughts to contribute.

Unfortunately, we are seeing more and more Americans shunning viewpoints that are different from their own. Without exposure to diverse viewpoints, people are becoming less understanding of diverse viewpoints. This is fueling an increasingly intolerant society.

We need to stop putting ourselves in echo chambers. We need to stop pushing those we disagree with into their own echo chambers. We need to become comfortable in mentally diverse situations.

In a truly diverse society, echo chambers wouldn't even be possible. There just wouldn't be enough unity for the isolation. What should be our goal? We need enough mental diversity that we can't reliably unite around common beliefs. When this happens, disagreements become a healthy part of life rather than fuel for hate and intolerance.