The Changing Mind
June 30th 2009 01:14
Once, a few years ago, I was taken to a party by a friend of mine, a little angel. I was very down, very depressed, very angry. And she took me to an old stomping ground - a place that was familiar but with constantly changing people.
Once there, I got into discussion with some philosophy students who were a good bit younger than me. I said something, flippantly, harshly, as they were discussing effects of God. Conciousness. You must understand, even if they personally identify as Atheist, they must admit to the existance of God for certain philosphy arguments. Angrily, I muttered, "there is no God."
This started up quite a conundrum. Though not as drunk as we would eventually get, we were solidly on our way. Rationilisation was difficult and emotions were high. Fuelled by shots of black Sambuca, this debate began to rage. On and on we went - balance, effects of evil, men in white robes up in the sky. How does something not physical have ears with which to hear prayers?
Eventually, the youngest and most passionate threw this at me. "Ok," He says, "So you are telling me, that you do not believe in any kind of overseeing energy at all?"
"Of course I do!" I roared, "But why do you have to call it GOD. Such a restrictive, hollow word, that means so many different things! It conjures up these ridiculous images of humanised beings, which is at the least, not very imaginative, and at the most, utterly blasphemous!"
"Aaaah!" said the group, and our conversation went into an entirely new direction. That if this 'God' is omnipotent, it cannot be humanoid at all, but a form of energy....And so it goes.
I noticed a friend of mine speaking to the young group leader. "See," she said, "I told you. At first, she seems totally closed minded. But once you start digging, she's got a really open mind"
Shooting Sambuca, I roared, "Cracked WIDE open mate!"
This philosophy discussion was one of the best I'd ever had, and I wish I could remember it better. But its the final line from my friend that sticks with me here, and warrants a little more expression.
Often, we like to oppose others for their closed minded -ness. But lets get ahold of a definition. The literal definition of having a closed mind is being set on certain principles, and not considering any others. The literal definition of an open mind is one that is able to explore many different possibilities.
Wedded to both of these concepts is the fact that we must define who we are. This is essential to living, to getting through the day to day. Even if we prefer not to judge, we must do it to survive. We must 'rate' as it were, and take a stance. Wether its passionately and whole heartedly or simply, we decide on which side of the fence we sit on, or if we sit on it. No matter where you sit, you can still have an open mind. You can say, "I do not believe in gay marriage" and have an open enough mind to talk about it, explore the possibilities. You dont have to change your mind, you can remain true to what you believe, but to have an OPEN mind, you must allow yourself to consider it. You can also say, "I dont believe in God" and go to church to openly explore what other people see. You may get a sense that some great overseeing energy may be there, and even then, you are free to keep your individuality, your views, and say you dont believe.
I have a feeling that the definition of 'close minded' and 'open minded' has gotten a little muddled up. It seems, if you live in a very modern world, are a vegetarian, an atheist, believe wholly and solely in the rights of all sexes to do whatever they want, then you now have an open mind. Even if you close it to the point that you cant understand people of faith, you cant understand people who eat meat, you cant understand people who place heterosexuality over homosexuality, none of those things have any merit. They are simply wrong. You dont have to open your mind to them. You dont have to consider their point of view. It threatens your views, so you are within your rights to close your mind to them. Attack them even, just for being different.
Far too often, lately, we decide we are going to attack without thinking through the consequences. It is my experience that those who fight for animal rights and decide to become vegetarian have no idea of the agricultural process. They dont realize that if the 6 billion plus popluation became vegetarian tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of animals would be slaughtered - to no purpose - to make way for the fields needed to support the vegetarian crops. That enough veggie crops to feed six billion plus popluation would wipe out species we have not yet touched. There is a reason we adopted the feedlot, that animal activists are so against. It was to save space, save land. Farmers know more about saving land than any city dwelling vegetarian.
We live in an eco system. No matter how civilized you think you are, no matter how far from the cave man you think you've come, it is still kill or be killed at its base level. Im sure the city dwelling animal activists dont think of that in their once a year foray out to the country to boycott farmers and hug trees. They just want to accuse him of killing things. Thats right, he sure does. And when you get back to the city and pull some milk out of the fridge at the grocery store, who the hell do you think put it there?
Just a little sidenote, that I utterly adore? How many vegos out there drink milk? I know a few who do, and one of them says she cant possibly get her protien count without diary. But when I saw her eating a yogurt, I had to speak up.
"Oh my God" I said. "You eat diary??"
"Have to"
"But dont you understand, by being vegetarian and yet having diary in your diet, you totally void the reason for being a vegetarian?"
She asked me to explain. So I did.
Cows, like all other creatures on earth, only give milk when they have had a baby. If you visit a diary shed - which I have done, on numerous occasions as part of agricultural studies - you can see the calf shed. A good few hundred calves just taken from their mothers so they can get hooked up to the milking machine. Little baby cows just waiting for slaughter.
Hey, didnt Jackie O, animal activist and vego supreme, just endorse the rice smoothie?
Im just saying, that sometimes, in our attempts to get others to see our point of view, we push too hard. We become exactly what we hate. And then we cant go back.
Im not saying anyone has to change their mind. That is not required. Just think about the possibility that you could.
Once there, I got into discussion with some philosophy students who were a good bit younger than me. I said something, flippantly, harshly, as they were discussing effects of God. Conciousness. You must understand, even if they personally identify as Atheist, they must admit to the existance of God for certain philosphy arguments. Angrily, I muttered, "there is no God."
This started up quite a conundrum. Though not as drunk as we would eventually get, we were solidly on our way. Rationilisation was difficult and emotions were high. Fuelled by shots of black Sambuca, this debate began to rage. On and on we went - balance, effects of evil, men in white robes up in the sky. How does something not physical have ears with which to hear prayers?
Eventually, the youngest and most passionate threw this at me. "Ok," He says, "So you are telling me, that you do not believe in any kind of overseeing energy at all?"
"Of course I do!" I roared, "But why do you have to call it GOD. Such a restrictive, hollow word, that means so many different things! It conjures up these ridiculous images of humanised beings, which is at the least, not very imaginative, and at the most, utterly blasphemous!"
"Aaaah!" said the group, and our conversation went into an entirely new direction. That if this 'God' is omnipotent, it cannot be humanoid at all, but a form of energy....And so it goes.
I noticed a friend of mine speaking to the young group leader. "See," she said, "I told you. At first, she seems totally closed minded. But once you start digging, she's got a really open mind"
Shooting Sambuca, I roared, "Cracked WIDE open mate!"
This philosophy discussion was one of the best I'd ever had, and I wish I could remember it better. But its the final line from my friend that sticks with me here, and warrants a little more expression.
Often, we like to oppose others for their closed minded -ness. But lets get ahold of a definition. The literal definition of having a closed mind is being set on certain principles, and not considering any others. The literal definition of an open mind is one that is able to explore many different possibilities.
Wedded to both of these concepts is the fact that we must define who we are. This is essential to living, to getting through the day to day. Even if we prefer not to judge, we must do it to survive. We must 'rate' as it were, and take a stance. Wether its passionately and whole heartedly or simply, we decide on which side of the fence we sit on, or if we sit on it. No matter where you sit, you can still have an open mind. You can say, "I do not believe in gay marriage" and have an open enough mind to talk about it, explore the possibilities. You dont have to change your mind, you can remain true to what you believe, but to have an OPEN mind, you must allow yourself to consider it. You can also say, "I dont believe in God" and go to church to openly explore what other people see. You may get a sense that some great overseeing energy may be there, and even then, you are free to keep your individuality, your views, and say you dont believe.
I have a feeling that the definition of 'close minded' and 'open minded' has gotten a little muddled up. It seems, if you live in a very modern world, are a vegetarian, an atheist, believe wholly and solely in the rights of all sexes to do whatever they want, then you now have an open mind. Even if you close it to the point that you cant understand people of faith, you cant understand people who eat meat, you cant understand people who place heterosexuality over homosexuality, none of those things have any merit. They are simply wrong. You dont have to open your mind to them. You dont have to consider their point of view. It threatens your views, so you are within your rights to close your mind to them. Attack them even, just for being different.
Far too often, lately, we decide we are going to attack without thinking through the consequences. It is my experience that those who fight for animal rights and decide to become vegetarian have no idea of the agricultural process. They dont realize that if the 6 billion plus popluation became vegetarian tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of animals would be slaughtered - to no purpose - to make way for the fields needed to support the vegetarian crops. That enough veggie crops to feed six billion plus popluation would wipe out species we have not yet touched. There is a reason we adopted the feedlot, that animal activists are so against. It was to save space, save land. Farmers know more about saving land than any city dwelling vegetarian.
We live in an eco system. No matter how civilized you think you are, no matter how far from the cave man you think you've come, it is still kill or be killed at its base level. Im sure the city dwelling animal activists dont think of that in their once a year foray out to the country to boycott farmers and hug trees. They just want to accuse him of killing things. Thats right, he sure does. And when you get back to the city and pull some milk out of the fridge at the grocery store, who the hell do you think put it there?
Just a little sidenote, that I utterly adore? How many vegos out there drink milk? I know a few who do, and one of them says she cant possibly get her protien count without diary. But when I saw her eating a yogurt, I had to speak up.
"Oh my God" I said. "You eat diary??"
"Have to"
"But dont you understand, by being vegetarian and yet having diary in your diet, you totally void the reason for being a vegetarian?"
She asked me to explain. So I did.
Cows, like all other creatures on earth, only give milk when they have had a baby. If you visit a diary shed - which I have done, on numerous occasions as part of agricultural studies - you can see the calf shed. A good few hundred calves just taken from their mothers so they can get hooked up to the milking machine. Little baby cows just waiting for slaughter.
Hey, didnt Jackie O, animal activist and vego supreme, just endorse the rice smoothie?
Im just saying, that sometimes, in our attempts to get others to see our point of view, we push too hard. We become exactly what we hate. And then we cant go back.
Im not saying anyone has to change their mind. That is not required. Just think about the possibility that you could.
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