If we want to see a significant increase in freedom in the long term, we'll first need to witness a resurrection of metaphorical thinking.

 

This is one reason the great classics are vital to the education of free people.

 

The classics were mostly written by authors who read widely and thought deeply about many topics, and even more importantly most readers of classics study beyond narrow academic divisions of knowledge and apply ideas across the board.

 

In contrast, modern movie and television watchers, fantasy novel or technical manual readers, and internet surfers don't tend to routinely correlate the messages of entertainment into their daily careers.

 

There are certainly deep, profound, classic-worthy ideas in our contemporary movies, novels, and online.

 

But only a few of the customers watch, read or surf in the classic way--consistently seeking lessons and wisdom to be applied to serious personal and world challenges.

 

Only a few moderns end each day's activities with correspondence and debate about the movies, books and websites they've experienced with other deep-thinking readers who have "studied" the same sources.

 

Facebook can be used in this way, but it seldom is.

 

Alvin Toffler called this the "Information Age" rather than the Wisdom Age for this reason--we have so much information at our fingertips, but too little wise discussion of applicable ideas.

 

As Allan Bloom put it in The Closing of the American Mind, people don't think together as much as they used to.

 

Even formal students in most classes engage less in open dialogue and debate than in passive note-taking and solitary memorizing.