Good weekend all things considered. Flogging Molly and Andrew W.K. Thursday night at the Troc in Philly. One of the opening bands dressed up in costume and the Mollies came out all dressed as Andrew W.K. which just added to the whirling dervish happiness of the evening. A little sleep and then over to Philly for a marginally interesting tour of City Hall, then some work for my bro at his office and then off to Mercersburg to check out the new temporary family digs. Nifty. Back to Gettysburg and some more tidying sort of work then back to real work today. Yikes and away!
Over the weekend I was yet again called “closed minded” by my mother of all people. Of course she is a dyed in the wool Kennedy liberal/ex-flower child who still thinks Ronald Reagan is the personification of evil. The jury’s still out in my mind but more and more people are thinking Reagan saved the world so somewhere in between is the truth. Regardless, I am of the opinion that calling someone “closed minded” or telling them they “don’t listen” is what liberal types do when you won’t finally bow to the unerring accuracy of their belief system and finally surrender to their all-knowing wisdom. I tried to figure out exactly what she meant by saying I “don’t listen” but the best response I got was something along the lines of, “if you can respond to the other person’s arguments before they’ve even finished making them, you don’t listen.” I responded that I’ve heard all the arguments before and anyone who watches the evening news will be continually bombarded with the same arguments and again, how do you know someone listened if even at the end they disagree with your point. No good answer was forthcoming.
Anyway, I have come to several conclusions. One is that it is absolutely an insult to call me closed minded. Anyone who has known me for many years knows I have changed my proclamations regularly. As I think back I realize I really haven’t changed my deep down beliefs (pro-life, anti-tax, anti-big-government, etc) but I have changed the outward manifestation of them. I even found a sign I made during the 1992 election which borrowed a Civil War period quote and ended up saying “I feel I would like to shoot a [Republican] and yet I know this would not be in the spirit of Christianity.” I was an unabashed Clinton partisan, claimed Bob Dole was the antichrist (until I heard him speak) and even thought the whole impeachment thing somewhat unsavory. I’d still defend the man if he were President as the office is deserving of respect even if the man in the office is a complete ninny (as Clinton was).
What I am is a zealot. When I find something to believe in I go all the way, maybe even tending toward the ridiculous in the fervor of my beliefs and I will readily take the extremist view because by arguing that you might convince people the truth lies somewhere in the middle which is where they ought to have been all along. I would never call anyone “closed minded” or tell them they’re “not listening” because that’s just petty. Just because they don’t agree with you doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it just means they haven’t seen the light yet and in my style of debating that doesn’t mean cutting off debate and giving up hope, “Oh you’ll never understand! You’re closed minded!” Rather it means I need to ratchet up the intensity, beat down their walls of argument and belief and drag them kicking and screaming into the light of truth, justice and the American Way.
Yup, turn up the heat. When they tell you you’re “closed minded” that means they’re out of arguments. When the enemy runs out of ammo that’s not the time to open negotiations, that’s the time to charge their trenches, firing as you run and force a peace on your terms. In all things, war to the knife and the knife to the hilt.