Free thinkers are dangerous...

...because they don't exist!  One of the most noble lies of our epoch, perhaps even an artistic lie, is that there is such a thing as a "free thinker."  At most, this lie is a psuedonym for anarchy, but then the phrase "free thinker" is only half right.  An anarchist is certainly "free" in an of this world, Hobbesian sense.  We would, however, be remiss if we were dumb enough to call an anarchist a "thinker."

Nietzsche, who if you haven't notice is my favorite philosopher to hate, mostly because he is liberalism's philosopher par excellence, took to calling the instinct of the weak the "herd intinct."  No poet has ever been as masterful regarding style than was Nietzsche.  Few philosophers have been as masterful, either.  Nonetheless, as Augustine tells us, inimitable style does not constitute truth.  What of this herd instinct?

The lie of individualism, of radical individualism as envisaged by the existentialists, is that we can somehow escape the herd.  We have heard it said that there are free thinkers among us; those who can assume the heights of humanity by separating from the general herd; those who can escape their narrative; those who have no material cause.  The prophets who tell us that we are self-creators are the blindest of all because, alas, they fall into a tradition without knowing it!

The key to being a real free thinker is not in becoming a self-creator because we all follow the lead of others as social animals.  The key is knowing who your shepherd is.  The self-proclaimed free thinkers do not realize their shepherd is providence punishing them in their own members.  Let them dream of being those who have separated from the herd; let them dream of living on their isolated island; while they dream, we will watch them follow the beckoning of their lower desires; we will watch them become slaves to the real slave morality.

A free thinker then, knows his shepherd, knows his narrative, and is conscious to who he is.  With Socrates we can say that self-knowledge is the key to free thought.  This, of course, puts the 8% of Catholics who submit to the total authority of the Magisterium square in the category of free thinkers.  Free because they submit to authority -- such strange paradoxes arise for we the godliest of all animials!  Free, because they do not succumb to the torrents of custom; free because they do not offer psuedo-demonstrations for their mere appetites; free because they know they follow.

Tell me of a political party, or a radical individualist, who does all of the following: opposed to abortion, opposed to contraception, opposed to the death penalty, opposed to homelessness, opposed to active euthanasia, opposed to hate in all its guises.  8%, that is all.  They follow, but in following the way, the truth, and the life, they are free.  Free because they are conscious of their tradition. Free because grace sets them free.

Incidentally, Plato warned us of unapologetic poetry and the dangers it posed for animals that seek to live in society.  Plato understood well that we are all part of some herd.  He also understood that we needed the right people shepherding us.  When we listen to the pope, we listen to the one voice of sanity in an insane world; we listen to the voice of reason in the malaise of unreason; we listen to humanity in the onslaught of inhumanity; we listen to the only true voice of freedom.

So, you would be "free thinkers," remember you are part of a tradition.  Remember that you cannot escape your narrative or get out your walking stick for you will be the blind leading the blind.  When the blind lead, we know where we end up -- the pit.