The famous phrase "dare to think" represents one of the central ideas of the Enlightenment. Before analyzing the phrase in that context, we should ask ourselves: do we dare to think?  

The answer, for many, seems obvious: school enrollment has increased, there is fast media access, we have Internet etc.

But the answer does not seem so obvious when you read different comments from people all over the Internet.

Many of these comments can be perceived as hateful which lead people to make distorted simplifications and reveal their little understanding of facts. 

An example is how many people only remember the headline of a news article story when in reality the headline does not correspond to what the actual story of the article says. 

Some will say that this is the media’s fault, attracting readers through disingenuous headlines. Some journalists think more about success than accuracy and use this technique so that readers stick to the headlines and are unwilling to read the full article. 

The phenomenon of deceptive owners would be alleviated if the contents of the articles were to be well prepared. There are journalists who distort in a clamorous way not only the headlines, but also their way of presenting the "facts."

So, have we really acquired the courage to think on our own? Are we sufficiently open minded enough to  distinguish between: clear data, confusing data, acceptable conclusions and ideological manipulations?

Daring to think requires systematic work and deep training that leads to closer to the news and facts with broad-mindedness, with a healthy prudence, and able to see much farther from the immediate.

The reality of the world we live in and the people who set it up is extremely complex. A person who dares to think has sufficient openness of mind to avoid reductive simplifications and distorted analyses. In this way he can embark on serious research into the facts of the past and the present.