what we think of as freewill is largely an illusion:

much of the time, we are simply operating on automatic pilot, and the way we think and act – and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment – are a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we realize.~ Malcolm Gladwell in Blink.

Gladwell always asks us to look again. He challenges our thinking, as in the very way we think we actually think. He's disarmingly pleasant, a skilled storyteller with broad appeal who uses hard data to help us see beyond our vaunted assumptions and theories -- the things that are also used to shape policy. Pulling together strings from different sciences, he applies studies, makes us mull with him.

Most of all (and the reason he's attacked): he challenges the main authorizing strategy of the elites: the illusion that we live in some sort of meritocracy.

 Malcolm Gladwell:

Fantastic NYPL The New York Public Library conversation with Malcolm Gladwell on tolerance, criticism, and the importance of changing your mind on a regular basis:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/24/malcolm-gladwell-nypl-interview/

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(aside: about the 10,000 hour meme.)