A man in the country does his own thinking, but you get him into town and he soon will be thinking second-handed. – May 1, 1926  Will Rogers

Second hand thinking seems so prevalent today especially in our nation’s capital. Each political persuasion has their own set of key words that must be spoken during any discussion of their ideology. Most of these words come from their party leaders or other talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. They have honed their lists of words that cause the highest emotional response (especially fear) and they use those words as much as possible. Second-hand thinking is just another way to say that many people parrot the harsh rhetoric given them. No one cares to go against the leadership of their political party.

Recently I have been studying about how the Christian Bible was gathered together during the fourth century under the ever watchful eye of a Roman emperor called Constantine. I will be posting some words about that in my RedletterLiving blog soon. The point I wanted to make in reference to the post here is that while the bishops were discussing the concept of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) there were three bishops who strongly opposed that idea. They insisted that it was not in any of the documents they had gathered together for consideration but was instead an invention of the committee. Their objections were ignored and the concept of the Trinity was adopted. Not long after the Nicene council, as this gathering was called, had decided the bible contents and issued their new creed that everyone in the Roman empire was commanded to learn, one of the three bishops who opposed the concept of the Trinity was shipped off to the equivalent of Siberia! The other two were subsequently executed!!   This seems to be the same thing that is happening today in our congress without the executions that is. If the rank and file disagree with the leaders they are shipped off to the equivalent of Siberia of the congressional halls and committee assignments. Second hand thinking is required for members in congress today. No original thinkers are currently welcomed in those hallowed halls.

So Will I agree with you but I think your quote would be even more accurate today if we substitute the word “congress” for the word “town”.

But what do I know…