Duckbrain

There are, in existence, ducks which believe themselves to be red rubber balls, because a red rubber ball happens to be the first thing they encountered. They follow the red rubber ball about, to and fro and fro and to, and never once think themselves ducks for the entirety of their lives.

I mention this because I keep on meeting humans with the minds of ducks, willing to follow about the strongest idea in the room simply because it is the loudest. I suspect I used to be an individual whose duck-brain believed itself a red rubber ball, and perhaps this is why it bothers  me as much as it does. It seems that those sorts eventually come to a situation in which the red rubber ball is taken away from them, at which point they go one of two ways; either they shut themselves up with the single idea, defend it voraciously, grow angry at the blue balls or the green balls or, heaven forfend, other ducks that come along, or they take a moment to think, and become something other, and better, than what they were.

I am unsure which of these two paths I have taken. I seem to have built a ballpit, full of many different colors of ball, and perhaps I have thrown the philosophical rubber duck in as well...

...yes, that's right, go ahead and play with that thought for a moment...

...but have I evolved beyond the duckbrained thing that parrots (urngh, mixed imagery)  ideas of others and into a creature capable of thinking for myself? It is a disconcerting thing to have to wonder about.