Curse you, complexity! Half of America reviles you more than the tax collector. Between denying your existence and refusing to come to grips with the reality that you rule, they solve the problems you create with slogans: My country right or wrong; If you hate the war, you hate the troops; Right to life; the ‘real’ America; lock and load; Guns don't kill; Let's take back our country; You’re either with us or you’re against us. If only this level of simplicity had ever solved a single problem in the course of history, what a wonderful life this would be. But “nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could,” as Julie Andrews, who apparently understands complexity, musically revealed.
Our country is not, at the most fundamental level, divided by racism, nor by intellectual barriers, or even by class hatred. What keeps us on different pages of the American hymnal is that half of us refuse to acknowledge that our planet is a complex place to live a life. This is not a matter of degrees. My brother-in-law the truck driver, whose formal education ended at high school, holds sophisticated views on politics and is well informed on a variety of important topics. He deals with complex personal issues with a wisdom beyond the reach of most of us. Above all, he meets the only requirement our world lays down for those wishing to lead a meaningful existence – he keeps his mind open until the facts are in, and then he acts appropriately.
Open mindedness is a door to adulthood. It’s a simple attitude that captures the spirit of all the complex ideas the founding fathers used to invent a democratic form of government. It is a mindset that certifies its possessor as a grown-up who believes in his ability to make a difference. But when absent from people’s approach to the world, it disqualifies them from being taken seriously about anything they think or write or say.
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