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Thu 14 May, 2009 06:02 am
Can't we just hold it?
Accept or reject are not the only options one has. The most important and generally overlooked, especially by the young, is the option to 'hold'.
It appears to me that many young people consider that 'to be negative is to be cool'. This leads them into responding that 'X is false' when responding to an OP that states that 'X is true'.
When a person takes a public position affirming or denying the truth of 'Y' they are often locking themselves into a difficult position. If their original position was based on opinion rather than judgment their ego will not easily allow them to change position once they have studied and analyzed 'Y'.
The moral of this story is that holding a default position of 'reject or accept', when we are ignorant, is not smart because our ego will fight any attempt to modify the opinion with a later judgment. Silence, or questions directed at comprehending the matter under consideration, is the smart decision for everyone's default position.
Our options are reject, accept, and hold. I claim that 'hold' is the most important and should be the most often used because everyone is ignorant of almost everything.
Do you accept, reject, or hold judgment regarding my claim?[/b]
@coberst phil,
I think "holding ideas" is something that is learned. You need to have your ideologic ass kicked a lot to develop resistence against totally accepting ideas. Sort of, if you are always right there is no reason to not take a rigid stance, if you are frequently wrong you will want to examine both sides very well before taking a stance, and even then be ready to change it.
I would say the ability of remaning neutral is the same than open-mindness.
@coberst phil,
If I'm not mistaken, I remember reading somewhere that the Japanese have a word with similar meaning to your "hold."
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