D- | PsychologyZenFreedom

BEST HAVE AN OPEN MIND

Cow pies and horse feasthers

1. Best be flexible and open minded

2. Best be rigid and closed---warm and safe

3. Tales from the Dark Side---we have cookies.

BEST BE FLEXIBLE AND OPEN MINDED

John Stuart Mill is a very strong advocate of openness to alternative views. Here is a summary of why he feels openness is so important.

1. Your point of view may be wrong---to believe otherwise is to assume you are infallible.

2. Your opinion almost certainly does not contain the whole truth, and alternative points of view may have valid elements. If you have the honesty and self-confidence to recognize them, understanding increases---the presentation of your point of view more powerful.

3. Even if the other point of view is completely wrong it is important to listen carefully and present your position vigorously and honestly. Otherwise your point of view loses its vitality and freshness---becomes nothing but dead dogma and rhetoric.

AND

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…

Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them…he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.

____________________

Here are effective ways to increase your openness to alternative views.

1. Commit to rationality. If you or the other side ignores basic logic, you or they are stupid, corrupt, or a hopeless ideologue. Don’t waste your time.

2. Acknowledge a valid point or criticism. Good move. You’ve learned something, and greatly increased the other side’s willingness to listen to what you have to say.

3. Acknowledge and question your assumptions and biases. There is no human on earth whose opinions are not heavily based on assumptions and biases. Objectivity is an illusion. Even hard data is meaningless until interpreted, and the interpretation is dependent upon the assumptions and biases of the interpreter.

4. All points of view have weaknesses. Congratulations if you acknowledge the weaknesses of your own. You are far wiser and more honest than most of us. Such acknowledgement leads to ever greater wisdom and honesty.

BEST BE RIGID AND CLOSED

Warm and safe

John Stuart Mill’s ideas are so high minded.

So obviously true.

COW PIES and HORSE FEATHERS!

Just the flowery, flowing rhetoric of intellectuals in their safe cocoons, protected by gated communities, army, police and the Zoning Commission---and lots and lots of hot air among friends. When their basic beliefs are challenged they are as ready as anyone to shut down opposing views. They just do it with bigger words, bigger lies and a whole lot more arrogance.

Oh my, you might be tempted to say. Such overblown rhetoric. Such mean-spirited cynicism. Or maybe just a sad attempt at satire or lampoonery. And you shout, “I dare you to defend what you just said”. And so I shall.

Well I’ll start by pointing out that a free, honest and knowledgeable assessment of all sides is extremely rare. Guess who agrees with me.

Albert Einstein

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity, opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such opinions.

_________________

There are two very good reasons why people try hard to shut down opposing views.

1. We are pack animals. Humans protect their intellectual territory as much as wolves protect their physical territory. The vital need to belong to a pack eliminates any attempt to seriously consider the logic and data supporting the ideas and beliefs of those mangy curs across the river. Those who dare are not treated kindly by the pack.

2. The vast majority of people do not know the logic and data supporting the ideas and beliefs of their own pack. Nor have they felt the need to develop the critical tools needed to evaluate such information even if they had it.

____________________

Here are very effective ways to protect your intellectual territory from those flea-bitten, mongrels down by the lake.

1. Play the ad hominem and genetic fallacy cards---two easy ways to avoid ever having to consider the merits of an opposing argument. Just throw nasty names, or dismiss the argument by demonizing the source.

2. Create an abominable straw man. Simple and another cheap shot. Argue vigorously against an easily countered argument the other side never made.

3. Cherry pick, exaggerate, minimize. Only present evidence that supports your position, and exaggerate the hell out of its relevance and validity. Minimize the relevance and validity of evidence presented by the other side. Be sure and call them a bunch of cherry pickers.

4. Interrupt when the other side is making a good point, or on a roll. Ask them to define a word they just used, or please repeat what they just said. Drop a pencil on the floor, or start coughing. Anything to disrupt the flow.

5. Double Standard. Could not be simpler. You demand the other side do none of the above. You do them all.

____________________

A strong belief in the validity of their point of view is all most people have. Just agreeable generalities, uplifting platitudes, massaged and licked daily by their friends and what they choose to read and watch.

There are a few, a very few individuals who are reasonably successful at honestly evaluating all sides of an issue. They are typically independently wealthy, tenured faculty members, or retired. Such people are rarely leaders of political or social causes. They lack the dedication and powerful fervor of someone who has The Truth.

If you want a nourishing and satisfying discussion of basic issues find a follower of John Stuart Mill. If you want to have a wonderful time, go get fellow pack members and stroke, lick and massage your wonderful ideas. Suck wonderful satisfaction shaming and demonizing all those awful deplorables.

__________________

I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it.

Clint Eastwood

___________________

Serious thinkers want to have their opinions challenged by competent and forceful proponents of opposing views.

Let me know if you find one.

WHAT DID YOU FIND?

COME TO THE DARK SIDE

We have cookies

This Adventure is a powerful way to expand your Maps of Reality

and watch pack behavior.

A serious challenge

You probably get your news from sources that tend liberal or conservative. For instance, you might regularly visit The Huffington Post and Salon on the left, The Drudge Report and Breitbart on the right.

If you read both sides you don’t need this adventure, and are to be congratulated for being exceptionally open-minded. But if you read only one side, carefully read both sides every day for two weeks. The above four websites will do fine.

Notice how both sides cherry pick what they report or don’t report and reinforce the positive and negative trigger words they favor to support their talking points, narratives and counter-narratives. You will find some truth in the spin but the selectivity, exaggerations, and minimalizations are a little less than honest.

You probably won’t convert, but may find the other side not entirely wrong. At least you’ll have plenty of wild cookies from the Dark Side to share with your pack.

Of course if you are tightly bonded to your pack, don’t waste your time. What you believe are not talking points and narratives. What you believe is The Truth!

WHAT DID YOU FIND?

Paul

Started to explore other packs, a little, kinda like an adventure. Maybe not such a good idea to go exploring. More friction in my life with people, and myself.

Jennifer

I didn’t want to do this one but my bf insisted. Glad. Ya the other packs are not all bad. Even learned new things. Mostly wrong of course, but not all.

Sandy

Oh my, what an adventure. Both sides lie through their teeth, all the time. So sure of themselves. So self-righteous. Ok, there is no Truth. I knew that. Just didn’t know how much everybody twists reality to fit their pack. Wonder how many realize they’re doing that?