Back in my college days, I was considered by many of my peers as a liberal person. I was involved in student politics, studied Political Science, and followed both state and national politics carefully. As a politically involved student, it was natural for me to be involved in the student unrest of the 1960s. It was us against “The Man.” All authority was to be resisted by whatever ever means necessary. Things could, and did, get messy.
Those days, in college, it was emphasized that to be a good, inquisitive student, one needed to listen to people with differing opinions. To be narrow-minded was the ultimate sin. Open-mindedness was a basic attribute of a “Liberal.” Important to getting a good education was the ability to garner facts, theories and concepts and make up one’s mind as to what made sense. While a student I spent hours in dorm rooms discussing ideas and invested a good amount of time in public debates. It was in these conversations and debates that I learned to see the holes in my arguments and, instead of just insisting I was right, look at what was wrong with my thinking that made for the soft spots in my ideas. It was called being open-minded.
As I read about the debates and conversations on college campuses and read the sharing of differing ideas on social media, I wonder what happened. Liberal or Conservative, everyone seems to be narrow-minded. Even worse, people seem close-minded. There is little give and take; just verbal blunt trauma. Our conversations seem to be limited to the talking points of our favored political party. Give and take, the honest and open sharing of various ideas and theories, has become a thing of the past. It is about “winning” the argument. It seems that little real thinking is involved in the conversations. Just gather in conclaves of like-minded people and reinforce each other’s preconceptions.
College campuses of today seem to be an alien land compared to the campuses on which I sought an education. Debate was welcomed. Exchanging of ideas was exciting and stimulating. Changing one’s mind was a sign of intellectual growth. Not agreeing with someone was not a death sentence on the relationship. Those who thought differently were not considered the enemy – or stupid. Misinformed maybe, but not a bad person.
From reading about and talking to college students, it seems all of that has changed. Students are now seeking “safe places” to be “protected” from people who fail to agree with their ideas. By the way, these are not safe places, they are isolation booths. Someone who has an opinion different from mine is not a threat to me and I don’t need to be protected from them. Seeking a safe place seems to me to be narrow-minded, thin-skinned, intellectually dishonest and shallow. Such an atmosphere is not a place for education.
College campuses seem to have become a place of lock-step thinking. “Think like us or you are not welcome.” Even worse; “You are stupid, and you are an evil person.” Surveys of college professors show that a huge majority are of like political and cultural philosophies and they teach from the bias of those concepts. An education that fails to look at many sides of a subject is not an education; it is an indoctrination. Research and surveys tell us that a vast majority of college graduates have very similar worldviews and political predispositions. Some would say that is because they are smarter than others. Since I have been there (In college) my opinion differs on the why. I believe it is not because they have been educated, but is because they have been indoctrinated. Again, I warn against mistaking education for intelligence.
The major problem with being an open-minded person in a narrow-minded world is that nobody agrees with you, thus nobody likes you.
Copyright © 2018, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
Bill McConnell is the Interim Minister at Norwood Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.
He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053 or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon
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