Mind Plateau

I think I must have reached a mind plateau as I have been struggling with various themes to get back into my blog. This morning I was reading the latest O magazine; there was a section on women who had lost an incredible amount of weight and one woman talked about a mind plateau as part of the weight plateau phenomenon. Well, that resonated with me and opened up a window of thoughts and conversations in my mind.

The truth is that we can get stuck in our own conversations and that can be a dangerous thing. It’s important to hold on to one’s belief and essential truths, of course. However, we are not evolving as civilized, educated human beings if we don’t move past our initial learnings. Now for those who know me that may seem a little ironical because I certainly have some long held beliefs that anyone would have difficulty shaking out of me, such as my left leaning political beliefs. But I think no one would say that I don’t listen, and I mean really listen, to people spout off their own opinions. (poking fun at myself in case you don’t “hear” it). I listen to folks talk about their alien stories or their conspiracy theories and later I will mull them over to see what merit I can find in their beliefs.

Yesterday I had a discussion with my sister and my nephew which was voluable even though we were all three on the same side of the discussion. The discussion was centered around university students who parrot their parents’ political leanings without in any way understanding what they are saying. This astonishes us because being “university” students one would think they had an open mind. We are fooling ourselves because even though a person enters the “hallowed halls of learning” it doesn’t follow that these individuals are above average in intelligence nor does it mean that they are actually open to learning outside their comfort zone.

When an individual says “that’s the way it is” to end a discussion one wonders why he has even bothered to show up for the exposure to ideas in the first place. Yes, I am delusional if I think that education will necessarily open up a person’s mind to the idea that she is their to help make the world a better place! (Lest ye think we were wanting to "convert" anyone to our political thinking, it was simply an example of the way the discussions were going. People like these still think Darwin was crazy).

Oh dear, really? I thought I was here to make buckets of money so I can buy a BMW.

Once these people have received their degree, diploma, certificate or whatever they have reached a plateau in learning that never moves forward. That would be one of the reasons why the Teaparty is enjoying such success. The flower children and hippies have bred a couple of generations of right wing Republican rednecks that scare the beejesus out of me! The other day I was a captive audience in listening to a right winger nutbar inciting his audience to hate. Yes, to hate. Right on a Canadian radio station. We are to hate the uneducated and unemployed. It’s their fault they can’t get a job. And apparently there has been 40 years of left wing, bleeding hearts causing this sense of privilege and entitlement in the lower classes. Lower classes? Did he actually say lower classes here in Canada? Wow. Aristocrats. We have aristocrats in Canada?
I think mind plateaus are real but for some people the plateau only leads to the edge of a cliff.