A brief thought: I thought of Bill Maher just a minute ago. A few weeks ago I said in a conversation that I disagreed with about 20% of what he says, but later that day I realized what I meant to say was that I disagreed with about 20% of his apparent mindset. As much as I rally around many of his ideals, I can't help but feel that he is very close-minded. Self-righteous. Like many of the well-known people who I agree with about 80% of the time, he believes himself to be (I'm pretty sure this is a near-exact quote) the only person with his head screwed on right. Well actually I'd suppose most people have that belief to some extent (including me). Anyway the point is that as I thought about this close-mindedness I came up with this sentence: the more open-minded a man is, the more capable he is of converting his enemies. I think I would also argue that the more open-minded, the greater potential to reach truth one has - whatever it is that you want to define truth as, your deviance from the direct path is determined by your weight of bias. So, no matter what ideals you pursue, you are more likely achieve the greatest happiness, as well as inspire the most people to join you, the more you disavow yourself of personal infallibility.
Also, open-mindedness inhibits institutionalization, or brainwashing. How can you be brainwashed if you incorporate the possibility of fallacy into your paradigm?
Also, open-mindedness inhibits institutionalization, or brainwashing. How can you be brainwashed if you incorporate the possibility of fallacy into your paradigm?
"How can you be brainwashed if you incorporate the possibility of fallacy into your paradigm"
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I would say he's only brainwashed to himself. He's rather open-minded in that he's uniquely unbound by social norms. Because of that he's often misunderstood, and his directness offends many, but he is actually an articulate, constructive person willing to contribute to humanity. A million to obama is big for someone like him.