Sunday, April 05, 2009
Of being "Open Minded"!
A very good friend of mine -actually one of the very few people in my whole life that I can talk freely to knowing that I will never get judged or misunderstood- mentioned that "open minded" has become abused lately and turned to be very vague as it is "sticked" to all kinds of people and actions without really having a solid base upon which it is applied. She also questioned:
"What is open-mindedness? Which adjectives fall under its definition? and then... how are they implemented. ..? Or is it just one of those linguistic fashions?"
This made me think for a while and then I reached the conclusion that, like any adjective, "open minded" differs according to who says it and who she/he gives it to. So for example such an adjective can be given to a man who does not mind sharing the house work with his wife, a mother who accepts that her daughter goes out with group of friends from both sexes and stays out late, to a man who does not mind that his wife or girlfriend dresses in an exotic way, and it can reach the extreme of giving it to people who do not believe in God or any religion.
And of course we have to put in mind the three things that govern our society and become the base of judgement which are religion, traditions and social pressure. Accordingly, a person who breaks some of these rules can be easily called open minded by another person. And again it all depends on who gives the title and to whom.
So I think it is like any other adjective, very subjective, you cannot find a single definition or even a group of things that if present in a certain person this person deserves the title, it's like most of the adjectives we use. What is beautiful? What is good life? Who is a happy person? And the list can go for as long as we want.
And although some adjectives can be measured like intelligence for example, still the means of measurement differ according to who measures and why is he measuring?
I think if you want to minimize your annoyment, whenever you hear this adjective (or any other) being given to someone, just ask the giver of the adjective two questions:
1- What do you mean by open minded?
2- Why do you think X is open minded?
It will help you understand the one who gave the adjective, which is really more important than understanding the one who was given it. And believe me you will be shocked how people use words to describe things.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I certainly agree that people use different words to describe different meanings than what we may beleive.
Yet i feel that open mindedness is more related to the mental atittude rather than behavior.
I may walk in the street with a lollipop (breaking of norms) but that will not be considered as an open mind but rather as a rebellious behaviour.
I think that being open minded will reflect more the acceptance of the other different views in life, the willingness to hear and actually embrace different views.
But as you mentioned , it means different things to different people, so may be it is just me....
RH
Well I certainly agree with you on those Qs. But still I agree with your friend on this word being really abused nowaday. Everybody - or most of them - who do not want to be judged or criticized they just say that ppl aren't " open minded" enough. I think if one doesn't have a concept or an idea that ppl would be "open minded" to, then this term is abused and they don't know what it means in the first place.
On those questions they are really good, bs nasee7a, only ask them to the right ppl 3shan if not you'll be disappointed and annoyed like I did :)
Such an interesting post ya Meto! Was just thinking about that: what are the boundaries of one's acceptance of others such that the term "open-minded" applies. I totally believe it's a long continum that serves to describe anyone from those that are tolerant to small objections to society, all the way to those who never judge whatever they see.
to me being open minded is about accepting people the way they are even if they don't live up to one's standards... it has to do with being tolerant and non-judgmental of others... it's a wide-range kinda expression just like "freedom", don't you think!
i admit i use it as a way to play word-tricks with friends... i say i am as open minded about others as they are about me, and i watch them trying to untangle the idea...
Dear friend(s). Although I count myself as an open-minded one (more in my own definition I'm going to tell you), I believe this word is changed to a cheap Chinese toy which is as once mentioned "tagged" to the pseudo-intellectual ppl to show them very OPEN-MINDED! But help me make new words as free-thinker or cracked-head or holed-brain and I don't know why, but such paraphrases lead me to the way my dearest Master Nietzsche thought about freedom for the wild beast (as he meant the unaware mankind.
So after believing this, I asked my friends to stop giving me names such as OPEN-MiND(ed!) and I prefer to be the close-minded so that I can concentrate on what I have there. Mind is to process the ideas in a whole isolation, however the enquirer mind has more intelligence to process what receives from the open-eyes and open-ears etc. I wish I could make sense!
Post a Comment