A discussion on human response and reception to new ideas...

After much experience in dealing with the most inquisitive minds in the entire world I have come to the conclusion that life's most important questions begin with the word why. Who are these inquisitive minds, you ask? Their names are of little importance and while two of them were of the utmost importance to me personally, there were many others that made me smile in wonder. They were all children and the good lot of them was no more than five years old. It would seem that as children we humans are more than willing to ask questions to which the answer only begets more complicated questions just as we try to run before we fully understand how to walk.

Why do humans seem to shut down when confronted with an idea or even a question that conflict with their own ideas? Why is it that some people seem to interpret questions that conflict with their beliefs as a personal attack against them?

Are we our own worst enemy?

Before you comment on how broad the question is, think about the sorts of questions a child might ask you and then try to answer while avoiding the plethora of other questions that will only make your answer more complex than the original question. To be fair, I shall begin with my own answer.

As a result of its inconsistency, the human emotional state is very fragile. A part of this emotional make-up is pride and can be shattered like glass against stone. As pride is most often associated with men, I shall use a man as my example. This man has come to the conclusion of a deep, internal struggle that has filled him with self-strife for many years but he has at last found peace within a comfortable answer. Another man is introduced and it is important that he is a man for a man's pride is never more fragile than when it is being measured against the pride of another man.
When the contemplations of another person turn in to questions conflicting with the man's comfortable answer then he feels the foundation of all that he has built his answer on begin to waver like the end of a game of Jenga. The answer had seemed so clear to him before the second man began to ask his questions and then suddenly he had new questions to which he does not have any immediate answers for. He has spent his entire life in contemplation and he has grown tired of wondering and questioning and would rather sleep soundly within his comfortable answer.
The man feels attacked by the other man's question but as the question is not a physical entity then he cannot vent his frustration out on it and so all that is left is the man who asked the question. So the first man defends himself with vim and vigor, even tooth and nail if he deems it necessary. The first man's defense mechanism was triggered by a provocative force but that force was not the other man. The first man defended himself against himself because the other man's questions and new ideas shook something inside of him that he was not strong enough or broad enough to take in. That which was shook was his confidence and the table holding grandma's glass vase need only shake for the glass to break.

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

-Jack London

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