IN science, we have this project about climate change, and stuff, and it has kind of opened my eyes to the fact that PEOPLE REJECT THE CLIMATE CHANGE THEORY.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?
THERE is a plethora of evidence to the contrary (see: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ for more information), yet people still oppose this. WHY? Because it goes against something deeply ingrained in them, from their childhood, from the "good ol' days". When something is so utterly and completely against one's ideology and set of values, either we 1) ignore it, saying that such an idea "doesn't exist" or, 2) we attempt to debunk, discredit, or otherwise kill this idea. And I think this is why we are wrong. When we don't open our eyes to different ideas, we are ALWAYS wrong. This isn't about climate change or climate stagnation and whatnot. It's about how we as HUMANS must learn to accept different ideas.
SO, to begin, let's start at what has started ME on this topic. CLIMATE CHANGE. We know it happens, but people oppose it because they have their own set of values that takes precedent or is utterly opposite to this theory. For example, maybe somebody owns a huge oil tycoon, so, naturally, climate change is BAD FOR BUSINESS. Thus, the feigned ignorance begins, or they go out of their way to say, "CLIMATE CHANGE IS BS!!!!" Whatever the effect may be, they don't like climate change, or anything that is "a threat" to them.
<sidenote> Yes, I know how redundant and obvious the above paragraph is, sorry. <sidenote>
BUT, of course, there is always a flipside. Those who support climate change (like, we don't like that the climate is changing, but we support the idea of it being a THING) also go out of their way to debunk and discredit those seemingly-ignorant/ridiculously-dumb people that reject this theory. WE must also acknowledge (note that I said "acknowledge", not "accept") their point(s) of view, no matter how off-the-wall, utter BS it is.
<sidenote> I am, often (usually) unable to do this, to acknowledge others' point(s) of view, and this is one big flaw of mine. Maybe this is something that develops with age, or maybe it is a quirk of one's personality that allows one to be so OPEN to ideas, to feelings, to stuff in general. <sidenote>
ONTO my next point... POLITICS. I MOST DEFINITELY won't be talking about politics in ANY blog posts of mine, but I will talk about the PSYCHOLOGY (or what I think about the perceived psychology of) politics and the LIBERAL vs. CONSERVATIVE notion which is present, at least, here in America. Recently, I witnessed a vortex of terrifyingly close-mindedness in the comment section of a particular Google+ post (Martin from the sudoku post, you know what I'm talking about). Of course, it was about politics. It is stuff like this that PREVENTS PROGRESS, this clash of ideas. Not necessarily the CLASH itself, but what that entails: blatant disrespect for others with opposing viewpoints. I, for one, have friends of all political viewpoints-- just because someone is liberal or someone is conservative (most often) doesn't mean that I will like someone more than another person. But, ALAS, it has come to that. These things, as previously stated, PREVENT PROGRESS, in this case, through the lack of legislation in the United States' Congress. This can be seen elsewhere too, though. The clash of ideas over climate change prevents so-called "green" technology from being more easily conceived and engineered.
WE ARE ALL WRONG. WRONG to assume we are right. WRONG to assume we are wrong. WRONG to ignore different ideas. WRONG to... okay, I ran out of things to say...
TL;DR Rejecting ideas prevents progress. ACKNOWLEDGE others' ideas and the world will be a better place. It takes one person at a time. And it's hard, I know, but I believe that it will be worth it for a better. brighter future.
--PRANAV
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