It's easier said than done. I have opinions on subjects where I have varying degrees of knowledge. Currently these include, the war in Syria, the UK royal baby, a new kitchen layout in our villa, religion, politics, football, climate change, modern monetary theory, systems thinking........to name but a few! There are many other subjects where, because of my lack of knowledge, I have very few opinions. These include, brain surgery, sub atomic physics, psychiatry, my neighbour's hobbies, Ancient Greek history, the UK Prime Minister's choice of holidays........I'll stop there! The comedian, Frank Skinner, once said: "Since I gave up drinking alcohol, I no longer have the opportunity to talk about subjects where I have little or no knowledge. So now my conversations are quite limited, frankly." Frank's right, there's many a true word spoken in jest. Have you ever listened to a couple of old soaks in a bar, putting the world to rights, and talking (usually rather loudly) a load of old rubbish?! As the alcohol is consumed, the inhibitions are released and the opinions flow free. But does it matter? So long as it's harmless drivel, probably not. Nobody's going to visit the local pub to get briefed on sub atomic physics.
Returning to the sober world, there must surely be benefits in having an open mind even on issues where we would claim to have plenty of knowledge? Yes, but is it possible? We all have opinions, stated and unstated. Peoples' stated opinions reflect their unstated agendas and biases - in my opinion! The concept of an open mind implies shelving preconceived ideas to allow an unbiased evaluation of others' opinions. That's not easy! Indeed, whilst we might start listening to others' views with openness, gradually data is extracted from our memory banks, which consciously or subconsciously processes and filters the incoming opinions into 'agree', 'no fixed view' or 'crap'. I don't see how any person with an active mind can prevent this natural cerebral activity. So what's the answer? How can we detach ourselves from preconception and think objectively? I stumbled across a discussion thread on LinkedIn's System Thinking World, a short while ago. One of the participants was proposing Explore, Question, Discover as a learning process. EQD - I like it!
I think you can apply EQD to all issues, both within ourselves and in society. Self analysis is a good starting point. So if we have an opinion on, for example, the layout of a new kitchen, it will almost certainly have a strong foundation of preconceived ideas. But those foundations can shape the way our ideas develop and very often constrain, or destroy, creativity. EQD - we can Explore our ideas alone, smashing down any preconceptions by considering all possible options, however wacky. EQD - we can Question other stakeholders and in the case of the kitchen project there is only one other very important stakeholder - my wife! EQD - hopefully our creation will be Discovered but probably not without a few iterations of E - Q - D. At the time of writing, our kitchen plan is still very much work-in-progress!
EQD in society is exactly the same process and for example, although I don't pretend to have thought through the options for resolving the Syrian conflict, I am concerned that the international community is not doing enough E and Q to have a realistic chance of D - Discovering a solution not just for Syria but for an extremely volatile Middle East region. Do any of the interested and influential parties - Syria, Russia, China, USA, EU - really have an open mind? I don't think so and there lies the problem.
Having an open mind is not easy. It's not difficult, therefore, to understand why a highly intelligent species, homo sapiens, has so much conflict at all levels within its societies. But in the words of Wayne Dyer: "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
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