Hey nexians, I wasn't quite sure where else to put this but I would like to share why I think open mindedness is very important, I've always known how important this was but through psychonautics, I've become more open minded myself and have made more "realisations" about open mindedness. Honestly, a book could be written on the importance of it but this should be treated as a guide for anyone that struggles with opening themselves up to other perspectives. I hope this proves helpful!
One of the things I learned from my psychedelic experiences is that debating whilst not respecting the other person's POV and not keeping an open mind will be counter productive in so many ways.
Remaining open minded is very important, if everyone's ego was too large to admit when they were wrong about something, we would get nowhere as an intelligent species. Accept that everything you think know about the world and different topics might simply be totally wrong, or wrong in certain aspects, this makes being open minded a bit easier. The same goes for anything which you hold dear to your heart, these beliefs can often be the most dangerous because they're the hardest to let go. A lot of people assume that all their beliefs are right, but this is simply not the case because there will always be a wrong or flawed idea about something. Question everything whilst remembering to keep an open mind!
As for debating, it can often be tempting to come in with the mindset of 'winning' the debate and or making the other person feel stupid or embarrassed about a belief they have because this approach can end up with you feeling good about yourself and it can end up with you silencing people easier. This is a common debate tactic people use to 'win' the debate, they'll say things like "are you retarded" or "you're so stupid for thinking that". Dont debate this way and stop it if you already do it, even if the other person is wrong about their belief. Resonating with the other person and understanding why they might hold that belief is good practice. No one 'wins' a debate, it often happens that both sides are wrong about something they've said during the debate. Debates shouldn't have to be an angry conflict in beliefs, debates should be a learning experience, multiple parties can gain from the debate and learn something new. The following video by charisma on command goes into more detail on this, regardless of what you think about jordan peterson, there's stuff to be learned:
https://youtu.be/hsQLksbfDSoMaking the other person feel stupid or emotional triggers a state of cognitive dissonance where they feel under attack and will argue their point in anger without any consideration for the other person which made them feel upset. This is extremely counter productive to your belief, especially if your belief is the 'correct' one and you want other people feeling the same way about a topic as you do as you feel it could benefit society (e.g the drug war).
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(410kb) downloaded 103 time(s).The human being is this night, this empty nothing, that contains everything in its simplicity—an unending wealth of many representations, images, of which none belongs to him—or which are not present. ... One catches sight of this night when one looks human beings in the eye—into a night that becomes awful - Hegel
Anything perfect is worth destroying, in fact it is desirable to destroy it, true beauty lies in imperfection - Nietzsche