COLUMN: I Prefer Mine Open, Thank You

By Tobin Barnes
Just ran into this quote by Malcolm Forbes. The guy was rich and notoriously playful, but I suppose he had his serious side, too.

Here it is: “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”

Pretty good, huh?

I love witty turn-of-phrase aphorisms like that, especially when there’s a gold nugget of truth inside them.

But maybe you don’t go along with the idea. Maybe you’re of the persuasion that says education is for picking up skills and abilities and knowledge. Molding clay into usable containers. Creating a product.

Well, me, too. But all that good stuff goes for naught without the open-mindedness attached. The product needs to be able to service itself.

Heck, knowledge is out there by the bushel load. Unlike past times, it’s easily at our finger tips. We’re a push button away from standing on the shoulders of giants. They’ve lifted us up. All we have to do is seek even higher.

Developing open minds, on the other hand? Well, that’s a little trickier. Takes some nurturing. Takes some pats on the back, takes some burping.

But open minds are worth the trouble.

Open minds tend to be self-educating.

Once open-mindedness is achieved, the education doesn’t stop. Open minds are self-lubricating.

Those minds are less likely to fall for the latest fad, freak show, or rabble rouser. They’re more immune to nonsense.

Not totally, but more.

Because they’re open, they’ll maybe take a quick look at this, that, or the other thing, but that doesn’t worry me. Open minds are quicker to detect the baloney and just as quick to reject it.

Dull, closed minds might stay awhile.

Open minds are skeptical—in a good way. Can’t be easily led down a garden path.

They’ll look at demagogues like Warren Jeffs, Senator Joe McCarthy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jung-il and their kith and kin—the list and the history is fairly endless, a rogue’s gallery—and they’ll laugh. They’ll also cringe. But laughing is always a good start with that type. And the sooner the better.

Those guys and their ilk prey on closed minds—whether self-inflicted or forced.

So yeah, I’m a subscriber to the education/open-mind thing. Dearly departed Malcolm Forbes had it right.

Problem is, from the look of things on the world scene, we’ve been failing good old Malcolm’s idea big time. Have been since the dawn of man. And a big part of the problem is that few think their minds are closed. It’s the other guy.

Nevertheless, down the trail of history, it sometimes seems the open-minded moments are well-spaced and relatively infrequent. And worse, it seems like that’s the way some people like it.

Less pressure to think that way. Less examination of the flavor-of-the-day cracked-pot idea.

Strange to say, but we’ve got to keep reminding ourselves that thinking is a good thing.