Think Kuji! Think! | Kujichagulia & Kwanzaa

Kujichagulia is Kwanzaa's second principle. It means self-determination. In order to determine for self you have to think for self.

I think most of us were taught and teach our kids to not follow the crowd. “Even if you're the only one,” we tell them, yet this is exactly what we start doing the older we get. I guess thinking for yourself is only a temporary teenage thing to try out and take with a grain of salt. I guess not thinking for yourself is proper in the land of the free and home of the brave. Being self-determined in many respects is anti-everything.

This brings us to the dangerous notion of ”political correctness”-- an oxymoron, misnomer and dichotomy all in one. Political correctness keeps us from speaking plainly while masquerading as politeness. It effectively keeps us afraid to speak what we think and adhere to a code of conduct that appeases the majority and thus only benefits the majority.

Any publicly pervasive notion, we trust, instead of our intuition. It's time to stop believing our individual thoughts, ideas, opinions, actions, abilities, resources and power don't matter. If what we think doesn't matter then why is so much time spent trying to methodically control and program what we think? Why is so much effort given to blackening anything that sheds light on injustice or upholds basic truths and rights? It's time to hold these truths to be self-evident in our thoughts and prevalent in our lives.

Truth is, in order to get you to do anything, they must have your buy-in to keep you buying whatever the pusher man has. You must think there is greater benefit to you to give someone else's thinking priority over your thoughts. You must think there is greater safety and security in sitting down and shutting up rather than standing up and speaking out.

Everything you do takes place in your thoughts first. Your actions and behavior are just the automatic results of what you think. If you think like someone else, let it be because you came to the final decision independently, willingly and knowing the ramifications of your actions that will follow and not from feeling afraid, powerless or not knowing your impact in the Universe.

The sad part is this: We think we're thinking for ourselves when we're not living the way we want to. Once we learn to think for ourselves and give the status quo the heave-ho, 4 out of 5 dentists won't be able to tell us what gum to chew and no one will be able to keep us buying stuff instead of substance, equating quality with publicity or convince us not to vote or vote differently because our candidate can't win. Think Kuji! Think!

Be determined to be yourself because you are what you think whether they're your thoughts or not.

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