Life of a Closed Minded

Sidney Rogers p3

Life of the Closed Minded

            The general point made by Anna Quindlen in her work Life of the closed mind is that many people have been taught to have a closed minded because others have shown us the same. More specifically, Quindlen argues that because of 9/11 people now live in fear which means that the terrorists won. She/he writes, “ Since 9/11 we have become more like them . The essence of the way zealots think about the world is polar: good and evil, holy and profane, them and us.” (page 67) In this passage, Quindlen is suggesting that the main problem of closed mindedness is that America has become a terrible example. In conclusion, it is Quindlen belief that close mindedness is becoming normal in America and young people are the ones most greatly affected by this.

                In my view, Quindlen is right because young children that grew up after 9/11 were surrounded by a lot of closed minded people and are now starting to show the exact same traits. For example, the way airports have made major changes just because of safety and because people are walking around in absolute fear. Although Quindlen might object that everyone is still affected by closed mindedness even if they aren’t close minded, I maintain that many people don’t realize how it has a major role and how fear that we have developed changes the decisions we make on a daily basis. Therefore, I conclude that it is important for people to understand the dangers of being close-minded and how by being so, we to have become exactly what we are afraid of.