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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Question of the Day: Day 172

Do you think that there are some people that act like they know everything and refuse to listen to anything new? What, in your opinion, makes them act like that?

4 Comments:

Blogger b said...

Yes, I have lived like that, and I know people who still do - mostly drug addicts and people who live in unhealthy lack-of-love relationships.

IMO, it's all about fear; fear of admitting that the way I have lived is unhealthy, uninspired, and unproductive; fear of having to let go of beliefs and ideas that don't work; fear of having to change; fear of admitting that I just fucking don't know the answer, and that I don't care.

Fear is an addictive emotion, and it is scary in and of itself - fear drives people to all sorts of insane behavior.

Lawrence Kubie differentiates healthy behavior patterns as follows:

"The measure of mental health is flexibility- not comparison to some norm. The freedom to learn from experience, to be influenced by reasonable arguements and the appeal to the emotions, and especially, the freedom to cease when sated. The essence of illness is the freezing of behavior into unalterable and insatiable patterns."

Fear freezes discernment into ignorant patterns of fear-based reaction (inflexibility.)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his firt inaugural address said:
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha of Compassion) discussed the relationship between fear, anger, and attachment (lust, greed, whatever), by calling them "The Three Poisons." When my life is consumed by these poisonous states of mind, I build walls around myself which renders me unable to listen to anyone or anything (including my inner divine self) that says anything that is outside of this deranged purvue.

Frank Herbert, in his dune series, penned "The Litany Against Fear", which reads:

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."



Om Shanti Shanti Om

Namaste
-b

6/21/2006 9:26 AM  
Blogger Mermaid Melanie said...

I know a few people like that. I find it tedious to be around people who are not open to new ideas. I can accept that they have thier knowledge and are correct in thier own ideas. But i find it strange that they believe that thier ideas are the only ones that exist and wont even hear anything new. The reason I feel this way is because we all get to where we are through some sort of experience/education. As i travel that road, i have realized how different, and yet the same, we all are. Finding new ideas for me is like a treasure hunt!

"There will always be a frontier where there is an open mind and a willing hand."

Charles Kettering

remember this as you learn your way through life.

6/21/2006 9:27 AM  
Blogger Michelle said...

I've known some people like this (still do actually) and I think that WiNgS summed it up nicely for me.

Insecurity (or even fear as B calls it) can make people hang on doggedly to their beliefs even when they are not working for them.

I feel sad for people like this but I am also wary of them because they seem to thrive on discord and verbal manipulation.

A closed mind is a dark room. Open the blind(er)s and let the light IN!

6/21/2006 5:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, fortunately, I know only a few. I think that they are rigid in their thinking, stubborl, arrogant, emotionally inept, often times lonely, have an emormous need to be "right", judgemental& mostly negative personality types in general.
I'm not sure why they act that way...
I suppose that they are simply lacking something(s).

6/22/2006 5:36 AM  

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