I was texting a very close, but often very obstinate friend this morning. We were continuing a days-long conversation regarding human relationships. Upon completing my 3 or 4 very lengthy responses to his not-as-lengthy, but very early morning texts on the matter, this idea fell upon me regarding the human mind and its capacity to adapt.
The weak minded have little capacity- or maybe little desire, which results in little capacity- to reason for themselves. They take the notions of the collective and accept them as personal truths, irrefutable and immutable in nature, and adapt their individual paradigms (my definition of this being the sum of ones thoughts, motivations, and behaviors- conscious and subconscious) to fit within these collective notions.
The strong minded have a great capacity- maybe both intrinsic and learned- to reason for themselves. They have the intellectual acuity to take the collective notion and rationalize a great amount of truth in it for the collective and for them as an part of the collective. This ability to find and apply reason to the notion allows the strong minded to accept the notion as GREATLY irrefutable and immutable- with very few possible allowances for minor exceptions, thus buying into a collective paradigm but with a higher understanding of the functionality of the paradigm.
The open minded also have a great capacity- maybe more learned and desired, than intrinsic-to reason for themselves . They too have intellectual acuity to take the collective notion and rationalize a great amount of truth in it for the collective and for them as an part of the collective. But they also have the even greater intellectual FORTITUDE to "reason away" (thanks Michael McDonald!) the collective truth of a notion in order to find a personal, individual truth that may be contrary to that of the collective but is for them far more irrefutable and immutable than the truth of the collective, thus creating a wholly individual and unique paradigm.
So here is where these three come into relation with each other...
The weak minded is so susceptible to the rationale of the strong minded, the open minded, and (sadly) to the other weak minded, that they cannot possess any significant understanding or delineation of personal truths from collective truths. They will go with what sounds right or works for the moment. And because it isn't a personal notion of truth, it will inevitably fail them when it is applied at another time or to another situation. This makes them totally reliant upon the thoughts and truths of others, which is a precarious state of being.
Unlike the weak minded, the strong minded can be so married to their thought/truth, by virtue of their ability to reason their way to this thought/truth, that they can no longer accept for themselves any other thought/truth that may prove their original rationales faulty or obsolete. (It must be noted that this original thought/truth may be collective or individual.) They may allow the open or weak minded to have a different thought/truth, but when the open minded asserts that another thought/truth could also work for the strong minded if they allowed it, the strong minded often refuses it--mostly out of fear, but sometimes out of sheer stubbornness and resistance to adaptation. This leaves them unable to find, reason, and accept newer, more-functional paradigms that likely will aide them in attaining their destined or desired end, which is a precarious state of being.
The strong and open minded are really the same. But the fortitude to "reason away" of the open minded grants them a beautiful kind of freedom to accept their own individual truth, while allowing the weak and strong minded to accept their own collective truths as well. While the open minded is susceptible to the thoughts/truths of either the weak or strong minded, it must always be tried first against immutability and irrefutability of the open minded's own individual thought/truth. And if the collective thought/truth of the strong/weak minded is proven to be more-highly functional than individual thought/truth, then the open minded will accept it as a "collective thought with individual truth", and develop a new paradigm from this. This makes them highly adaptable and thus able to define success by their own standards and achieve that success, which is NOT a precarious state of being.
So...
Human relations then suffer because:
The weak minded are easily manipulated; Intentionally, by the strong minded, Unintentionally, by the open minded.
The weak minded is attracted to the open and strong minded, because the weak minded lack something of societal value and they want to possess-if only by proximity- what the strong and open minded have as a result of their ability to "reason away" and succeed on some level.
The weak minded will never be able to fully possess the heart and mind of the strong or open minded because it simple cannot comprehend its complexities and intricacies on the higher level necessary for the open or strong minded to feel understood and thus empathized with.
The strong minded are often easily attracted to the weak minded because they share the collective thought/truth.
The strong minded prey upon the weak minded as a means to strong minded's own ends, which may not even be to the strong minded's true benefit in the first place.
The strong minded can be head-strong to the point of weakness, thus weak minded RELATIVE to the open minded.
The strong minded is attracted to open minded because of the strong minded's fortitude to "reason away", but often cannot elevate their own abilities to reason to the level of fortitude necessary for them to abandon obsolete or faulty paradigms that impair otherwise healthy relations with the open minded.
The open minded pity the weak minded, but are attracted to their easy susceptibility to new thought/truths, something the strong minded is not easily capable of. But the open minded becomes disillusioned and subsequently frustrated by the weak minded's inability to individuate a paradigm as a result of the new thought/truths and their lack of fortitude to espouse any evolved paradigm for any significant amount of time, in any significant way.
The open minded are intrigued by the strong minded's similar ability to "reason away", and thus relations flourish...for a time. But the strong minded's probable obstinacy and marriage to paradigms that have become outmoded to or has low-functionality for the open-minded will ultimately cause a chasm or disconnect between the two.
The open minded may manipulate the strong minded through very subtle coercion, subterfuge, and seduction as a means to the open minded's own end because they know the strong minded is capable of resistance, if the strong minded wanted to or were to become aware of the machinations of the open minded- whereas the weak minded would easily submit and that would not be "fair" (or challenging). This allows the free will of strong minded to stay in tact, justifying any actions the open minded takes to change the mind of the strong minded. The submission of the strong minded to these machinations may or may not yield the desired/destined ends of the open minded....it all depends on many factors.
Solutions:
The weak minded must grow and learn and adopt the ability to rationalize the collective thought/truth (to be equal to the strong minded) and then the fortitude to "reason away" the collective thought/truth in favor of individual paradigm (to be equal to the open minded) that they then will espouse.
The strong minded must not force their own thought/truth (collective or individual) upon the weak minded, but must simply show them the tools of ration, logic, and reason.
The open minded must do the same as the strong minded, but also be patient with weak minded and allow them time to grow the fortitude necessary to "reason away" dysfunctional thought/truths and build/espouse functional paradigms instead. They must not only be patient, but also not lose interest or become bored with/by the weak minded.
The strong minded must learn the susceptibility of the open and weak minded, so that they can grow beyond their own thought/truths, while mainitaning the ability to rationalize the fundamentals and functionalities and the will to hold fast to that which is highly functional for them as an individual, regardless of collective notions.
The weak minded must appreciate the strong minded's strength and acumen, but be careful not to adopt the strong minded's thought/truths, if they are not functional or are disingenuous to the weak minded as an individual. (this requires growth and strength to even be able do this.)
The open minded must remain patient with the strong minded, showing them by example why the strong minded's thought/truths are faulty or low-functioning, allowing the strong minded to evaluate, create, and adopt new thought/truths and subsequent paradigms as a result of their own observations, rationale, and freshly-gleaned abilities to "reason away". But also the open minded must remain open to the possibility that the strong minded's collective or individual thought/truth may prove to be
a.) actually more effective for the open minded and thus a new individual paradigm must be created and adopted by the open minded, borne of a "collective thought and an individual truth"; OR
b.) more functional for the strong minded as an individual and allow them to exist in a very different way, and configure together a MUTUAL PLANE OF EXISTENCE wherein mutual paradigms exist that allow highly effective, actualized cohabitation of the open minded and strong minded as a unit.
The open minded must learn to accept the strong and weak minded for who and what they are; avoiding the compulsion to patronize, belittle, disregard NOR enable the weak minded and his inabilities. And also avoiding the desire to transform, weaken, manipulate NOR even despise the strong minded and his obstinacy.
The weak minded must appreciate the open minded's fortitude and agility in creating and adapting paradgims, while not falsely imitating the thought/thruths of the open minded in an attempt to transcend the weak minded's own inabilities.
The strong minded must, again, work to be open and to adapt to the thought/truths of the open minded, without viewing it as some kind of weakness or surrender of the strong minded's strengths and beliefs. The strong minded must be gentle in their steadfastness, maintaing their ground but susceptible to the forces of ration they themselves possess that lead them to their own thought/truths in the first place and could naturally lead them to new ones if they allow themselves to be.
ALL parties, all mind-types must operate first from LOVE for the other- simultaneously loving self- and then from genuine NEED and not mere want.
Thank you.
Charles Brown, 4/12/2011
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Epilogue: I REALLY did not plan to go this deep with this! This was intended to be an expression of mere observation, but somehow it turned into a true analysis and, i guess, a solutions-oriented work. But I suppose thats never a bad thing, as how much better is the observation of flawed thought or behavior when accompanied by proposed resolution and reconciliation?!
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