Prove all things - revisited

This is well worn advice, but I think it is rarely followed.  Don't follow the crowd.  Be your own person.  The advice is often closely associated with self-reliance and independence.  We in contemporary American society hold these things as virtues - or at least we tell ourselves we do.  It is my observation that those who are truly independent are quite unusual and their independence manifests in ways that are either not widely approved of, or, more often, subtle and not easily observed.  Popular wisdom is quite powerful and appears to reinvigorate itself with some variation of an old theme each generation.  It does so more frequently now that so many of us on earth (but not all) are so media-interconnected.  True independence, though, has another look to it.

"...strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14)

Yes, this is a warning that following the crowd is likely to lead you astray.  The corollary of "being your own person" does not follow in quite the way it does in popular culture, though.  This is another admonition to prove all things, to seek that objectivity that is available to us.  It is not self-reliance in the simplistic sense - nor is it "crowd-reliance."  What is it, then?  It is a testing against true standards.  It is using our rationality and freedom to know and to choose the gate that meets those standards.  Prove all things.  Prove with confidence and assurance.  Freedom allows us many choices.  The way is narrow that leads to life.