James Harvey Robinson, a history professor at Columbia University, discusses what prevents us from the pursuit of knowledge and thinking. So we humans accept our breakfasts, our trains and telephones and orchestras and movies, our national Constitution, or moral code and standards of manners, with the simplicity and innocence of a pet rabbit. We have absolutely inexhaustible capacities for appropriating what others do for us with no thought of a “thank you.” We do not feel called upon to make any least contribution to the merry game ourselves.
Indeed, we are usually quite unaware that a game is being played at all.
–“On Various Kinds of Thinking,”
James Harvey Robinson
Read the passage carefully. Choose a connection to another text a reader could make to the passage.
This reminds me of reading and analyzing the Constitution in civics class.
This reminds me of how mundane everyday life sometimes feels to me.
This reminds me of an article about how people are reluctant to analyze their own ideas.
This reminds me of the decline of manners in American society over time.