Independence of mind requires sustained submission to authority

[UltraBudgie]

... Think about a modern house... For this analogy, it's going to be your mind and your knowledge.
...

I very much like this analogy!  It extends very usefully: building codes, neighbourhoods, zoning, the gated communities of the MBA, the tickytack of the BFA; excellent!

I do wonder about its basis, however -- it seems to me that it might be more applicable not to "mind" in its entirety, but more to the public and professional persona that is the mind's expression in society and the world.  Role in society.  Modern manifestation.

I'm reminded also of George Carlin's excellent rant about "stuff".  In a materialist society, we collect stuff, and more stuff, and we need a place for the stuff, then we need stuff for the place, then we need a bigger place... a cycle of materialist pursuit.  I guess some people treat knowledge the same way -- need to degree for the job, want to work with this, so I need that, need the clout to be published, etc.  Education as facts, facts as useful tools, the mind as their storehouse -- it's a very "STEM" way of thinking.  Is that what your degree is in?

I'm also reminded of the "stages in life" mentioned in the Upanishads.  First, as a student, subject to societal authority.  Then, as a householder, plying trade and family.  Then, as renunciant, seeking solitude in the woods.  Building the house, filling it with stuff, then moving beyond its confines.  Sleeping under the stars.  Who needs houses, anyway?  But the earlier stages are absolutely necessary to get to the latter.

Great telescope analogy, too, although better for the known unknowns than the unknown unknowns, wolfie, but that's perhaps the point: BS learn about tools, MS learn to use tools, PhD learn to make tools.  Ideally, anyway.  Then, in STEM anyway, the final form seem to be leaving that all behind and growing artisanal pears by hand, or something.