Is It A Virtue To Have An Open Mind?
By DR. DONALD DEMARCO
A writer does not need to look very far to find grist for the mill. If he has an open mind he will find abundant opportunities to ply his trade. But if his mind remains open and never closes on anything worth communicating, he betrays his vocation. If one is open for business, he does want to close a sale or two.
I was in a drug store waiting for a prescription to be filled. This gave me time to roam the aisles to see if anything else tempted my pocketbook. I came upon an elaborate Halloween display. A row of ghoulish-looking talking heads caught my attention. I activated the voice box of one of them and listened to its eerie warning: “Don’t let your mind be so open that your brains fall out.” This grim annunciation was punctuated by several seconds of sardonic laughter.
Here was wisdom from a dummy that had something important to say to my students who, in general, were proud of being open-minded. But their affection for keeping their minds open was accompanied by their fear of ever closing it. I have always taught that the first lesson in philosophy is that the human brain should be activated.
The Halloween message is a paraphrase of something that Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times from 1935-61, once said: “I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.” Sulzberger would be amused to learn that his esteemed vehicle of communication has now shifted from the print medium to talking Halloween heads. His point is perennial. The purpose of looking is finding. The fulfillment of being open is to discover something worth having.
Allan Bloom wrote his best-seller, The Closing of the American Mind, to explain how having a perpetually open mind is equivalent to having no mind at all. There is no education without truth, which is something that the persistently open mind never attains. Being told in the classroom that the mind works only halfway is to immobilize the brain or, simply, to “close” it. Someone once said, “a diplomat is a man who says you have an open mind, instead of telling you that you have a hole in your head.” The classroom, however, should not be an arena for diplomacy. Truth may make a person uncomfortable, but there can be no education without it.
“Keep an open mind” has become a mantra for those of a liberal persuasion. It is an attitude, however, that yields no fruit. Truth, accordingly, becomes undiscoverable, and the very point of being open is meaningless. It is one thing to be independent, but one should not be independent of what he needs. Phyllis McGinley was not impressed by the person who boasted of an open mind:
“So open was his mind, so wide
To welcome winds from every side
That public weather took dominion,
Sweeping him bare of all opinion.”
The human mind has not completed its natural function while remaining in the state of openness. It is only when it closes itself on something true or good or right that it has completed the activity for which it was created.
A door should open to let one in, and close to keep others out. The mouth must open and close in order for eating to take place. The hand opens to grasp, closes to release. Eyelids open so that one can see, close so that one can sleep. Life is dyadic, a system of opening and closing. So too, the mind should close on what is worth keeping.
Sir Thomas Beecham once defined great music as, “That which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty.” “Magical music,” he added, “never leaves the memory.” We are open to good music, and when we come upon it, we want to keep it. Good music finds its home in the listener.
We want to close on what we find to be beautiful. And if the word “close’ is problematic, it can be replaced by welcome, accept, enjoy, or treasure. Good music ultimately belongs in the mind and heart of the listener, just as truth belongs in the mind.
There is an unfounded fear of knowing the truth of anything. The fear is to appear proud or presumptuous. This fear is unwarranted because a person who claims to know any truth must, in humility, recognize that the acquisition of truth does not make him superior but gives him the responsibility to profess it. The Catholic Church is both the teacher and guardian of truth. But it is equally zealous in promoting the virtues of humility and gratitude. No one likes a show-off. But to deny that truth can be known is to lapse into cowardice. Truth can be known, humility and gratitude can be realized.
Ray Bradbury wrote his 1953 novella, Fahrenheit 451, to show how foolish it is to avoid knowing anything for fear of appearing superior or inferior. In the story, Fireman Guy Montag holds up a copy of Aristotle’s Ethics and explains that anyone who reads this book must feel superior for having read it. Therefore, he explains, all books must be burned so that equality among people can be preserved. An egalitarian world, however, is a dystopian world.
Having an open mind is half a virtue. And the half virtues can do more damage than a vice that has no claim to virtue. The other half of the virtue is closing the mind on what is honestly perceived to be true. One can make mistakes, but the pursuit of truth is an adventure that none of us should ever shun.
