The failure to seek and understand is a basic, universal, moral failure. It is very serious, so it is important to note the ways that people don’t seek.
I think about two different ways -- avoiding and pretending.
Avoiding means ignoring your basic urge for meaning. It is filling your life with stories, games, and consumption so that you don’t have to think about basic things. It is lets eat and drink for tomorrow we die. It is making fun into the good. It is seeking the maximization of sensational pleasure. It is living for the next thrill. It is not living the examined life. It is believing whatever your culture believes without critical thought. It is ignoring reason.
Pretending means not seeking but acting like you are. It is generally not pretending for others, but pretending to convince yourself that you’re a seeker. It is examining your life, but lying about the results. It is open-mindedness about some possibilities, and closed-mindedness about others. It is bias. It is a conclusion first way of thinking. It is examining whatever your culture believes, only to find better reasons for why what you’ve always believed in the first place is true. It is abusing reason.
