Keeping an open mind...

This is the follow up to yesterday's blog. In order to see clearly, we need to have and keep an open mind at all times. This is much easier said than done! How do we do that? Here is my take on the question; first, it's important to take any information pushed upon us with a large grain of salt. No matter where it comes from, and especially if it comes from like minds or originates from an ideology close to our own... Next, we need to seek opposite points of view, even if that exercise is rather unpleasant or outside of our immediate sphere of interest; unless we do this, however, we'll never know what the “other side” in thinking and we maybe missing too on some very good views.

In a political context, we should survey both extremes (right and left) both mainstream right and left and of course the center, plus any other interesting trends that fail to fall neatly into any established category. It's undeniable that we all come with some baggage (cultural, educational, religious or just temperamental and it becomes our responsibility to filter everything that gets in the way of the desired outcome. This finally brings me to the most important part of the process, which is simply to know what our values ought to be and may evolve over time, so we can always keep the “end in sight.” So in order to clear up our intellectual house, we should never forget where we're going...