Free Thought

I found it very interesting that throughout the essay on enlightenment, Kant makes it clear that it requires mental labor in order to become enlightened. Our generation puts so little emphasis on thought, let alone the work involved. Too often, the situation that we find ourselves in is watching Netflix for three hours, yelling at somebody when they anger us, and living in a state of almost pure instinct with very little rational thought involved. Even when we do pause to think, it is only very briefly because we choose to take an easier path and redact our conscience from every day life. Kant points out (to subjectively paraphrase), that even if we are to just live our lives obeying every rule and falling all of the guidelines, it is better to mentally work it out and understand why, how, and what we are doing.