Some cheery news from the world of UK politics:

Scotland’s new Hate Crimes Act kicked in just over two weeks ago.

If you’re based in the UK, you’ll have seen the ensuing hoo-hah.

If you’re not, then all you need to know is that Scotland has criminalised the use of insulting words. 

Which means the desk-jockeys now have the power to tell their loyal subjects what to think and jail them for what they say (offenders can be clapped in irons for up for 7 years).

And the Big Brother state moves one step closer.

On a not unrelated note:

Over the last two weeks I’ve been reading the book Time to Think by Nancy Kline.

In the book, Kline explores the idea that from a young age, we are taught not to think for ourselves. 

Kline gives a few examples.

In one example she recounts the time she ran a leadership workshop for teenagers.  

Kline asked the room “Tell me about a time you demonstrated some kind of leadership”.

And over the course of the next few minutes, Kline recounts baffled looks from her class, with the students asking each other for help answering the question, trying to figure out what they're supposed to think and determining what everyone else thinks.

One girl chirps up and says “That’s not as easy a question as you might think” and another chimes in with “Let’s change the subject.  This is kind of boring already”.

Kline then asks “When was the last time someone asked you what you think?”. 

One student replied that no-one has ever asked her that question. 

In the book, Kline goes on to explain how common this is.  How schools and authority figures egg us on to focus on what we are expected to think or fall into line with what others are thinking.  Which leads to students spending their childhoods & most of their teenage years learning how to fit in rather than how to think for themselves.

Then this carries on into adulthood, with many adults afraid of their thoughts and trying to avoid any upheaval which might come from sharing or finding out what they really do think.

The book is choc-a-bloc with examples.

Saturday's FT further illustrated the point when it reported that a UK poll showed 76% of people said they’d restricted their views in public for fear of harassment.

That sounds high to me.

But if it’s true, it’s not all that surprising.

Especially when new laws like the Hate Crimes Act could have you chucked in prison for thinking or saying whatever a committee of pencil-pushers says you can’t think or say.

Look, I know some people say some truly awful things.

But I side with the vintage philosopher Voltaire when he supposedly wrote “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

I even understand where the modern-day philosopher Eminem was coming from when he rapped “You find me offensive, I find you offensive for finding me offensive”.

i.e. it’s not saying what we think which is harmful.  What’s harmful is the smothering of discussion, debate and being told not to say what we think.

Laws like the Hate Crime Act continue to hype up the fairy-tale that thinking for ourselves is some sort of sinister, guerrilla activity.

But it’s not.  Even if you happen to think or say something that someone else disagrees with or finds offensive.

As Kline says in her book:

Thinking for yourself is the only reliable road to real safety.  Thinking for yourself leads to more happiness, not less.  It offers more, not less, respect between you and the people with whom you live and work and whom you love. 

People may tell you in subtle ways that doing your own thinking is dangerous, but what is really dangerous is to keep on not doing it.  To keep tightening our vast minds until they cannot breathe constricts our society and our souls.

This is where my coaching comes in.

As the thought-police increasingly hold sway and more people conceal or lose touch with what they think (and even believe that having their own thoughts is itself a crime), my coaching is a way to redress the balance.

Knowing what you think is part & parcel of knowing who you are and knowing what you want.

Without knowing what you think, you're walking through life wearing someone else's shoes.

This is why my coaching brazenly & unashamedly helps you uncover what you think and what you want from life, then supports you in going after it.

Here’s where to go to find out more:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

 - Tom