'The Enlightenment' wrote Immanuel Kant, 'is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity'. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its causes lie not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! - Dare to know! - have courage to use your own understanding! - that was the Enlightenment.
Kant attacked the hegemonies which keep the human mind shackled to the need for guidance. In order to mature the intellect needs liberty. Nothing is required for enlightenment except freedom; and the freedom we mean is the least harmful of all, namely, the freedom to use reason publicly in all matters. But on all sides I hear:
"Do not argue!" the officer screams
"Do not argue, pay!" says the taxman
"Do not argue, believe!" says the pastor
Sapere Aude! Ladies and Gentlemen. Have the courage. The courage to think. The courage to question. The courage to never bow before authority! The courage... to stick your nostrils in the clouds, and your head up in the stars. Sapere Aude! - Dare to know! - Dare to live! Dare to be different. Dare to go to Mongolia! Hahaha...
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