How Open Minded Are You? Where Is Your "Crazy" Line In The Sand?
Yo yo my Steemies, wattup?
Do you consider yourself to be open minded?
How open minded?
How "crazy", would a system indoctrinated drone, classify you?
Where do you draw your line in the sand, between acceptable, possible, and impossible?
Can you accept anything as possible, although highly improbable, or do you have a point, a line in the sand, at which point cognitive dissonance kicks in, and automatic dismissal occurs?
Let's talk about that.
Peace.
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Nice one Bob. I have had my periods of closed-mindedness on certain subjects. I was very closed-minded when it came to politics for a few years - anything other than anarcho-capitalism, I wouldn't give it a fair shake, and I'd dive into arguments.
On the whole though, I've only become more open-minded as time goes on. I do see people in Internet discussions saying things like "Oh okay... you're going to question whether Sandy Hook happened like they said in the news. I'm out." Or "You're going to question whether gravity exists... I'm out." I can't say exactly what they're feeling in that moment, I guess it's just cognitive dissonance, fear, general discomfort. When you start asking certain questions, they just don't want to hear any more.
Personally, I love hearing questions I've never heard before, doubting things I've never doubted before.
People are generally very uncomfortable with uncertainty, probably a consequence of government schooling. Nothing can be an open question, it has to be black or white, and they need to know what it is now. But life is a perpetual mystery, we'll never know exactly what we're experiencing, if we'll wake up tomorrow to find it was all a dream. For many, that idea is scary... it is for me too, but it's also exciting.
So basically, I don't know where my line is. I'm sure for many there's also an associated blind spot, so maybe I've blocked it out.
Thanks Kurt, you are one of the most open minded, and with that, least judgemental, people that I've met.
I like your analogy there too, of a blind spot.
I've often thought of myself as being open minded in an area, only to have the contrary pointed out to me, by a good friend.
Do we blind ourselves with our own intentions, be they good or bad?
Peace.
I was just thinking about this post and I remembered this old documentary from Patrick Moore, former president of the British Astronomy Association. It's remarkable that any television company of the time would produce something like this. The premise is pretty simple, Moore goes around talking to people with ideas that are very out of the ordinary. He says he disagrees with most of them, but he is willing to hear them out, and even praises them for having the courage to think outside the box.
After seeing the documentary, I wrote this article, A Free Marketplace of Ideas, about how, in a society which doesn't have a centralised system of education, we should expect that people have wildly different ideas about what the world is and how it works.
I watched the doco, and read your article from 2 years ago (still just as relevant today).
It seems that in a world where ideas (and by association, thought) are sanctioned by the state, that the funnel of acceptable, is getting narrower and narrower. As such, it will eventually clog though, and will once again, overflow from the top into a cascading waterfall of possibilities.
Peace.
Looks like Moore later wrote a book by the same title, "Can you speak Venusian?".
Very good words today friend. Great advice and reflections for life, I love what you do. God fill you with success.
thank you for your advice and as you say
Peace. :)
Congratulations @bobaphet! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!