Humanity has achieved many remarkable feats.

We built cities from dust.

We crossed oceans.

We split the atom.

Most importantly, we discovered how to manufacture intelligence without the inconvenience of independent thought.

The process is elegant.

First, gather a group of ambitious young writers.

Then create a platform.

Give it a noble name.

A logo helps.

A mission statement helps more.

Now fill the platform with articles discussing society, morality, politics, philosophy, identity, culture, and the future of civilization.

Whether the authors understand any of these subjects is largely irrelevant.

The appearance of understanding is sufficient.

And appearance, after all, is the highest form of modern achievement.

The ancient philosophers committed the unfortunate mistake of spending decades questioning themselves.

Today's intellectual is far more efficient.

He spends twenty minutes researching a topic, forty minutes writing about it, and the rest of the day being congratulated for his insight.

Progress.

The beauty of the system lies in its flexibility.

A belief need not be true.

It need only be aesthetically pleasing.

It should look impressive in a caption.

It should sound profound when read aloud.

It should fit neatly between an introduction and a conclusion.

Most importantly, it should survive long enough to be posted.

After that, its fate is irrelevant.

Tomorrow another article will arrive.

Another position.

Another certainty.

Another carefully formatted declaration of wisdom from individuals who have not yet finished becoming themselves.

One cannot blame them.

Modern discourse rewards performance more than conviction.

Conviction is expensive.

It requires consistency.

Performance merely requires vocabulary.

This explains why so many contemporary writers possess the peculiar ability to discuss authenticity while sounding identical to one another.

Their sentences wear different clothes.

Their thoughts share the same skeleton.

One writes about courage.

Another writes about change.

A third writes about justice.

A fourth writes about awareness.

By the end, everyone has said something important and nobody has risked saying anything real.

How extraordinary.

Entire communities now exist where young people gather to exchange opinions the way traders exchange currency.

Ideas rise and fall according to popularity.

Moral positions fluctuate with public demand.

Intellectual trends emerge and disappear before they can be examined.

One might call it a marketplace.

Others might call it a theatre.

The distinction grows increasingly difficult to notice.

Particularly when the audience and performers are the same people.

Of course, every institution requires a purpose.

Officially, these platforms exist to amplify voices.

Unofficially, they perform another valuable social function.

They transform uncertainty into achievement.

Confusion into authority.

Potential into résumé material.

A teenager wonders who they are.

A month later they are publishing essays explaining society.

Civilization has never streamlined the process so effectively.

The miracle is not that people write.

Writing is admirable.

The miracle is the confidence.

The confidence to speak before understanding.

To conclude before questioning.

To teach before learning.

To represent complexity through six paragraphs and a compelling title.

Yet perhaps I am being unfair.

After all, every generation deserves its own intellectual traditions.

Some had salons.

Some had universities.

Some had philosophical circles.

We have collaborative Google Documents and submission forms.

History marches forward.

And who knows?

Perhaps among the thousands of recycled observations, borrowed convictions, fashionable concerns, and beautifully decorated uncertainties, a genuine thought occasionally slips through.

A dangerous thing, a genuine thought.

It cannot be cited from somewhere else.

It cannot be worn like a badge.

It cannot be adjusted according to applause.

It belongs entirely to its owner.

Which may explain why it remains so rare.