Let's all try to be a little more closed minded

A phrase we hear too often in our society is that we should try to be “open minded”. It is something that is unique to the late 20th, and early 21st century west. If we take a position that is not “open” we will often be charged with that great crime of “Closed mindedness”. Of course, when someone calls you closed minded, usually what they mean is something like; “Why don’t you agree with me? Disagreeing with me is bad”. The idea of being open minded, is, of course, pure silliness. How can we be open minded? The only conditions under which we could achieve this feat are ones in which we have no opinion of any importance. Certainly not one that we wouldn’t be willing to drop at a moment’s notice in the spirit of “openness”. We should, I agree, approach new problems with an open mind. But as William F. Buckley Jr said, “The purpose of an open mind is to close it.” Too often what people mean when they suggest that we should be open minded is that we should keep an open mind, even after we have formulated our opinions. Such a concept is a deadly threat to any serious search for truth, and is endemic to the culturally and morally declining west that we see around us.

If we never form any strong opinions, if we never can get to the point where we are able to passionately hold a proposition to be true, then we have given up the idea that we can even know what is true. I am sure that this concept is pleasing to some of the more leftist, relativistic minds in the debate. However, I find it to be a horrifying idea.

Everything that has driven the west throughout its history, from the ancient Greeks, through the medieval Christian philosophers, and up to the Enlightenment’s various champions of liberty, is a unbending belief that truth is a real concept and that it can be attained. Is there nothing worth preserving in that western tradition? I say that preserving it is the best thing we can do for ourselves and for the preservation of our civilization. And that is one thing I am happily closed minded about.