open minded

[Vizion]

I do not understand this term...does this mean that if someone disagrees with you they are not "open-minded"?

It seems to me that if they do NOT agree with you, they HAD been "open" minded, but now that they have decided to disagree with you they are now "close-minded"?

Liberals...can you explain or defend this saying? Or should this saying be added to the list of sayings that need to die?

Welcome to multiculturalism and the rejection of reason!

[Tyburn]

someone once told me that it would never do to be too open minded, or else your brain might fall out

It's the same thing with the tolerance movement. We have to tolerate others, but they don't have to tolerate us. Somehow that is ok, lol.

Originally Posted by Vizion

I do not understand this term...does this mean that if someone disagrees with you they are not "open-minded"?

It seems to me that if they do NOT agree with you, they HAD been "open" minded, but now that they have decided to disagree with you they are now "close-minded"?

Liberals...can you explain or defend this saying? Or should this saying be added to the list of sayings that need to die?

well, I would not classify myself as liberal or conservative....I am open minded

To me the term has meant the following. Just put youself in someone else shoes and see things from their perspective and NOT just the persepctive that is immediately known to you. For example, we live in the west, we see things from a "western" point of view. And more importantly, being open-minded just means accepting that it is possible that other people are doing things just as well as you are (or maybe better) and they are doing it in a different way. What are these 'things'? .....education, healthcare (we have done that one to death), law, politics, economics, banking etc etc etc.

just my two cents (two cents canadian that is!)

What is right shall be wrong, and wrong shall be right. God told you this would happen.

[Vizion]

Originally Posted by mscomc

To me the term has meant the following. Just put youself in someone else shoes and see things from their perspective and NOT just the persepctive that is immediately known to you.

Hmmmm....the first part is I think the grit of it.

So, if what you are saying is true, that being open minded is putting oneself in anothers shoes, aren't we at best simply trying to understand them? In that case I can see where "open minded" comes from.

However, when social liberals tend to use this term, they use it in reference to tolerance. If we don't accept something they embrace we are not being "open-minded" but moreover we are "narrow", or "close-minded".

Would they be correct to say this?

[Vizion]

Originally Posted by Garandshooter

What is right shall be wrong, and wrong shall be right. God told you this would happen.

Do you have that verse handy?

[Vizion]

Originally Posted by surveyorshawn

It's the same thing with the tolerance movement. We have to tolerate others, but they don't have to tolerate us. Somehow that is ok, lol.

Is that not a form of elitism?

Originally Posted by Vizion

Hmmmm....the first part is I think the grit of it.

So, if what you are saying is true, that being open minded is putting oneself in anothers shoes, aren't we at best simply trying to understand them? In that case I can see where "open minded" comes from.

However, when social liberals tend to use this term, they use it in reference to tolerance. If we don't accept something they embrace we are not being "open-minded" but moreover we are "narrow", or "close-minded".

Would they be correct to say this?

Well I tried to adress some of this in the second part of my post. I said "And more importantly, being open-minded just means accepting that it is possible that other people are doing things just as well as you are (or maybe better) and they are doing it in a different way."
For example, banking. The swiss, have quite a different way of doing banking then north americans. Yet, the swiss are notoriously rich. So in the spirit of being open minded, I may say to myself.... "hey what are those guys doing that I am not?".

But to expand on this. The word you used, tolerance. To be tolerant, according to the lexicon, in its general sense, is to accept something, WHILE you may dissaprove of it. For example, I have tolerance for gays and lesbians. I do NOT approve of what they do (the second part of the definition), but I accept that it is there life and not mine and I wont discriminate against them (not saying you do).

When you mention social liberals suggesting that "when you don't accept something they embrace we are not being "open-minded" but moreover we are "narrow", or "close-minded", this would be an incorrect use of the word tolerance, and shame on a liberal (or anyone) who does this. But, in my view, I don't think this is what they are saying. I think the people they target this ideology to are people that ARE close-minded to begin with. NOT because they disagree with you, but because they may feel that the conservative that is not agreeing with them is basing their oppinions on very narrow views, or vice versa.