#closed minds

Closed minds is regarded as a detriment to all thinking people, nothing to do with RHP and LHP. In every avenue of life, in every spiritual path, there are idiots thinking they know it all; then there are others who submit to "authoritative sources/ gurus" as paragons and exemplars of that path, and live their life as followers and worshippers... finally there's another part that is socially inept / or with handicap in thought processes, understanding and communicating. I'm not referring to medical conditions, but to those who suffered from poor education in combination with bad upbringing. A lot of negative states will formulate responses hostile to any true seeker. And for me, to be in a spiritual path is to be a seeker. Otherwise, all else is futile.

Socrates once said, "the  unexamined life is not worth living".

Of course nowadays people opt to follow trends and cult figures, so nobody cares much about such stuff... but the antinomianism and the desire for Liberty ought to make someone on the LHP re-evaluate themselves, in order to keep growing. Say a person grows up in a community of Bible-bashers and christian fanatics who blame everything not sanctioned by the Church as satanic / evil. And this person learns to meditate and to do yoga, for example. As soon as the others find out, they preach to him about the dangers to his immortal soul and all sorts of crap. Now, if that person maintains an open mind he should be like an agnostic - in other words, not completely sure about the validity of either state. S/he tells them meditation is cool and that there's nothing to fear from yoga, because s/he tried it. It works and it didn't cause any issues. The others though will be adamant that s/he is wrong, and will continue persecuting. So here an important distinction must be made: if something is confirmed through extensive personal experience, it can be safely assumed that the person may use it successfully as an axiomatic paradigm to live with. To continue to keep an open mind with regards to something that you've already proven numerous times is counter-productive. It also robs you of the certainty you need on which you can set foundations in order to challenge other ideas. Of course, the key word is confirmation; consistent proof is vital, with any bias carefully monitored and screened out.

Now what if someone gets blamed for having a closed mind simply because s/he is not like the others s/he associates with? Imagine if they value non-conformity and if they have idealized non-acceptance of any truth because in their minds that equates with having a closed mind!

With regards to thinking for oneself vs herd mentality, I do remember some quote from one of the Founding Fathers: it is your moral duty to disobey immoral laws. Of course, here we go with regards of what defines an immoral law. And what measures are taken to amend it within society, rather than have full blown anarchy.

If the social norms and ethics have been reduced to forced compliance (like in a dictatorship), self-deceit might be the only way for someone to continue living in such a demeaning world. Because the revelation of such truth will either cause a person become a rebel (Neo joins Morpheus and the Nebuchadnezzar crew, Evie joins forces with V, etc) or end up with a nervous breakdown / depression / insanity. Either way his or her life will be at risk, and very few people indeed are ready to take on that level of a challenge.

when the world forces a blink

in your single view.

.

i have no clue how to make someone care about other people.