Monday, July 14, 2008

Are You Open Minded?

Recently I was accused (subtly) of not being open minded by a dear liberal friend. Referring to the Bush administration her exact quote was : “---unless you have an open mind and can look at the "real story" or :"the rest of the story" there isn't any use even telling you about it.” That got me thinking about what it means to be open minded and whether I am open minded? The definition of someone who has an open mind (per Wikipetia) is: “Someone who has an open mind is receptive to new ideas or information.” I think most people, including myself, think they are receptive to new ideas and ARE open-minded. I think I am receptive to new ideas because I actively seek and contemplate new ideas. For example, I listen intently to liberal and conservative propaganda from John McLaughlin, George Stephanopoulos, Chris Matthews, Dan Rather, Chris Wallace, Brit Hume and others. Being receptive to ideas is vastly different than accepting and embracing them. I, like many people, including my dear liberal friend, have deeply held PRINCIPLES. I actively seek and contemplate new ideas but if they are not in concert with my principles I reject them. That does not make me less open minded. Just because I am open minded does not mean I have to accept and embrace all new ideas. Can a person with deeply held principles be open minded? What do you think?

3 comments:

Adrienne said...

Being able to agree to disagree is a big part of open mindedness for me.

Marcel said...

Exactly, new ideas must be evaluated to ascertain their acceptability. Many people have half-baked ideas and present them as something that needs immediate adoption. The wise know that there is nothing new under the sun and are suspicious of anything proclaimed to be worthy of embrace by all. But we do listen to see if there is merit, once satisfied that it is smoke and mirrors it can be easily discarded.

Marcel said...

I was surprised that Rush Limbaugh is not on your list.

The word verification is eight letters long; how long can it get?