Are open-minded people all close-minded f**ks?..., watch it. Options

[Melissa]

This is going to help me frame my research essay, so I really hope a lot of you respond with your views on all of this after reading ALL that I have to say. I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

A friend of mine recently told me: "I would never be friends with somebody who is racist or homophobic."

I was reading the introduction of the book Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom, and he basically argues that one of the purposes of education is to avoid the idea of solely judging different people by your prejudices. He then goes on to say that preventing this judgment by "removing the authority of men's reason" - (forcing people to accept others and be open-minded) - is to "render ineffective the instrument that can correct their prejudices.”

In today's society, people are learning from the extreme liberal mindset certain ideas that tell them to accept homosexuals, accept all races, etc. Homophobia and racism is bad news. People grow up learning to be open-minded and not understanding the basis and the prejudice that people were once so against. They’re growing up to be blindly open-minded. Of course, I don't propose that people teach with a prejudice (which is what Allan Bloom basically calls for), but I do think that to understand the ideas behind what you're being so open-minded about is very important.

You can't completely shut out the idea that there are other people who don't share the same ideas as you. Maybe they grew up in a religious environment and are against gay marriage because of what they've learned their entire life while you were learning that homosexuals are people too. You can't reject these ideas because, without completely understanding where prejudice comes from, you can never truly be open-minded. By deciding the second you find out that someone is racist or homophobic that you're not gonna be friends with them anymore is intolerance in itself.

No. I'm not saying that people should be "tolerant of intolerance." It's an oxymoron. It can never realistically happen.

What I'm arguing for is the fact that different people grow up with different beliefs and by automatically shutting yourself against these ideas is to be closed-minded.

Take murder, for example. Society says that murder is bad, therefore we have laws against it. Suppose we meet a cannibalistic society that doesn't believe that murder is so bad. They think that the elderly and the mentally retarded are perfect candidates for their next meal. A little out there, but deal with it. They come to America and realize suddenly that they're not free to kill whoever they want anymore. These people are suddenly discriminated against because we think murder is a sin (as homosexuals were/are discriminated against because, apparently, it's a sin). Are we closed-minded for not accepting these people? Then think about homosexuality. Religious people were brought up learning that gay sex is a sin.

Please, I really don't want this to turn into a gay rights discussion nor a racism discussion.

I want to discuss this question: as a society striving to become open-minded, are we becoming close-minded?