Don't Be a Blockhead - Grasshopper

I always loved when Lucy VanPelt in the Peanuts comic strip would call Charlie Brown a blockhead. It instantly painted a picture for me of how dense Charlie was being.

It suggested that he had a solid position on something.

The trouble is when our positions are solid, we can't learn anything new.

There's no room for expansion in solidity.

Now there's a difference between being a know-it-all and being a blockhead. A know-it-all acts as though they know everything. A blockhead may know plenty, but when it comes to a particular subject, they've already made up their mind. Nothing gets in. Nothing gets through.

Again, this blocks them from learning anything new.

"True believers" are blockheads. These are the folks who hold on to a belief even when the facts, or reality itself, suggest they might be wrong.

There is no logical argument you can make to a true believer that will change their mind. It seems the only agent of change for these people is emotion.

I remember the famed broadcaster Paul Harvey, who was a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War. He had a solid belief we were on the righteous path, and fact-based arguments against the war didn't seem to shake that conviction.

Until his son reached draft age.

Paul Harvey did a sudden about face on his support for that war. No counter argument changed his mind . . . the emotional vision of losing his son in the war did.

We see something similar when people loudly support building a prison or a nuclear power plant . . . until it's going to be built in their own backyard. Then, suddenly, they see things a little differently.

I guess one of the takeaways from this recording is this: Don't get into an argument with a blockhead. It's a waste of time and a waste of breath.

But the other thing to get curious about is taking a second look at your own solid positions. Examine them with a mental microscope that can show you the holes in your argument.

Remember what atomic science tells us: that a solid is 90% empty space.

It's in that space that something new can get through.

The best way I know how to get access to that empty space is by quieting your mind. There are no solid positions in this space, only the absence of thought.

And when you visit this space often enough, you may discover things that were solid to you aren't completely true, and it opens up whole new way of looking at things for you. 

The term "blockhead" still makes me laugh, but now it gives me new insight into what was out of view.

All the best,