While there are a slew of countries in which it might well seem to be not such a good idea to think for yourself, in most places, and in even in those oppressive countries and oppressive situations, personal or otherwise, all people that have been gifted by their Creator with their own mind, should actually dare to think for his or her self. After all, if you will not think for yourself, there are plenty of people as well as governments and businesses that will gladly do that thinking for you, but at the end of the day, at the culmination of your life, you, yourself, ultimately must answer for all that you have done and thought, for no one else, can answer for that bell that tolls solely for yourself.
Yet, despite this great and enormous freedom of being able to think our own thoughts, far too many people, live lives in which they apparently don't seem to cogently recognize that they are not only entitled to think for themselves but rather that they really do need to do exactly that. Obviously, when we are born into this world, it isn't really possible to independently think for ourselves, because we are dependent upon the good graces of others to sustain us physically, emotionally, and mentally. Additionally, when young children begin to exercise their right to think independently, we find that often for their own good, they are shot down, because they do not readily understand the consequences of bad actions, such as playing with fire, crossing a busy street without looking, or getting into an automobile of a stranger. Nevertheless, there comes a time in any child's life, when that independence of thought is absolutely mandatory or else that child will often live a life in which it is either one of conformity to the prevailing norms of its situation, or a life in which they have let certain others mold them, for better, or for worse.
While governments, businesses, people, and family, may mouth the words of the importance and validity of thinking for your own self, in point of fact, many of those institutions and people, do not welcome truly independent thought, because that often threatens their models and status quo. That, however, is not your problem, in fact, rather, that is your challenge, so as to step up and to truly dare to think for yourself.
This world is full of all sorts of people and all sorts of agendas, of which, it must be noted, that those that go with the flow, are the equivalency to all those non-thinking objects of the flowing river that do the very same thing. Only someone that is alive and independent has the strength of character to go against the flow, and it is by going against the flow that demonstrates that at a minimum, you have thought for yourself. This doesn't mean that simply being non-conformist is the best thing to do or even the right thing to do; what it does mean, however, is that you have a right to think for yourself, and that you should exercise that right, especially in all things that really matter.
Do you think for yourself? If you are not so sure, then make it your point to instead of mindlessly agreeing to various things in the first place, to actually dare yourself to truly think about them, as often as you can, and you will find out rather shortly, how often you do actually dare to think for yourself, as compared to being a human automaton, which does not.