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A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood.- Chinese ProverbNo one likes to have to deal with someone with a closed mind. That includes peoplewith closed minds themselves.What is a closed mind? We hear and read so much about them, but seldom have theterm defined.To understand the closed mind, we begin with a combination of ignorance and fear.These two terms themselves make "closed mind" hard to define. "Ignorance" in thissense means "lack of knowledge."In the information age, facts (or misinformation disguised as fact) is inabundance on the internet, just as it has always been available in libraries.People don't know a great deal about the many different topics that come up inconversation or home or work environments during a day. There is more to learnthan they have the time or inclination to absorb.This sets them up for embarrassment if their lack of knowledge is revealed toothers. The fear of that embarrassment causes them to formulate strategies toprotect themselves, just as a person who can't read will create strategies toprevent others from finding out about their skill gap.This combination of fear and ignorance so predominates the lives of some peoplethat they literally create lifestyles around their defence strategies. Comparingit to someone who can't read, again, you likely know one or more people who areunable to read, but you aren't aware of it because their defence strategies havebeen successful. So it is too with the person with the ignorance-fear protectionstrategy.Some of these people, whom we can call "closed minded" because they are afraid tohave any new information input into their brain since it may upset their defencestrategy, are bold about their position. They adopt rationales for things andargue vigorously with those who think differently. They often have been providedwith arguing points from mentors, such as religious or political leaders. They arearrogant, aggressive and care little for the feelings of others (which wouldreveal their lack of real knowledge).The more common kind of closed minded person is either quiet or acts behind thescenes. The latter would be the neighbourhood gossip, for example, spreading theirvenom about a victim in face-to-face chats without the victim present. The vastmajority of closed minded people are quiet about their positions on many issuesbecause they fear that by opening their mouths they will reveal just how littlethey know. They don't vote, for example, because they say the candidates are allcrooks or paid by industries.There's nothing wrong with knowing nothing, they believe, so long as you don'tadvertise it publicly.Closed minded people reveal themselves by either avoiding discussion on issues ofcurrent interest to most people (such as elections) or by taking positions forwhich they offer no support, only emotional arguments. "Do you support thepresident or do you support the terrorists?" is a typical emotional argument, asno room is left for a reply that does not fit into one of the two untenablecategories.You can't win an argument with a person with a closed mind. There's no point
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