Little pig, little pig

[verax-acis]

There was once a young man who loved animation and longed to be able to create magical worlds of whatever he could imagine. So after a long time of saving his money, he was finally able to buy a computer powerful enough to run the newest animation programs. Like childhood, the man found himself in a wonderful world of possibilities in the endless sea of binary magic. But after some time, while the young animator was socializing with his new group of computer friends, they began to ask him why he was not online. When he replied that he was warned not to get online by the senior animator of a respected studio, they chuckled to themselves; waving a dismissing hand at the stuffy overprotective advice he was given.

“There’s nothing to be worried about.” They replied. “You’re missing out on so much. Music, games, interesting people. Open up! Liberate yourself! If you keep closed you will miss out on the vast world of ideas and experiences all available at the click of a button. So agreeing with timid apprehension, the young animator accepted the file sharing program and a number to a high speed internet service provider.
So a couple days latter the young animator was connected, eagerly installing his file sharing program and opening his computer to the vast ocean of sights, sounds, ideas, and philosophies. With a wonderfully amazing treasury of binary goods, the young animator was not only connected with everything he could possibly want but even things he didn’t know he wanted; ready to connect him to every eager impulse.
But only a couple weeks after being connected he began to notice his computer beginning to slow. Its odd behavior worsened causing it to grind, freeze and even shut down for no apparent reason. A virus, taking advantage of his open computer, slipped in disguised as a harmless file. Once installed the virus systematically began shutting down his computer.
Concerned and distraught, he rapidly acquired virus scanners and other types of drive cleaning software but all they did was slow down the deterioration, unable to completely purge his system of the malicious code. Furthermore, the most distressing result was the fact he could no longer run the programs he loved, his whole reason for having the computer in the first place.

“Open up your computer!” they said. “It’s so great! Look at what you’re missing.” He sneered in angry frustrated disgust. “little pig, little pig let us in.”

So with no other options he looked up some computer specialists and took his fading computer to them, desperately hoping they could fix it. Nodding in understanding, the computer specialists comforted the young animator with hope.

“We can fix you’re computer. When it’s fixed you’ll have a state of the art firewall you must keep on. You can’t just leave your computer open to any file that comes around. We’re also going to give you scanware that tediously checks every file that your computer is considering accepting, searching for the common bugs and viruses that our studies have identified. But there is a catch. You must first pay for the work and before your computer is totally refurbished we must wipe out everything.” The specialist informed.

Taken back by the severity of the step, the young animator considered all his work he had stored on his computer. “Why.” he asked broken heartedly.

“Number one you need a new operating system. The one that came with your computer had inherent glitches that would have eventually shut down the computer anyway. The viruses you acquired by opening up your computer to the world just sped up the problem. Of course you could have enjoyed years before total shutdown, had you been a little more prudent, but in the end this was a necessary step. So gritting his teeth at the heavy weight of the news, the young animator bit his lip considering all the time he lost by foolishly listening to his friends and opening his computer with reckless disregard.


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Explanation


I wrote this parable to address the idea, common to this day and age, that being open minded is a virtue. It seems to me, more times than not, that “open your mind” is a term used to shame the prudent. In fact now adays “prudent” is a considered a negative term likened to “close minded”. Very often the term “open your mind” is used to entice someone to do something commonly considered taboo or, to be perfectly honest, unwise. But consider how foolish it would be for someone to except anything that came along.
Before someone takes any advice from anyone I think it is common sense and practical to first take a good long look at the source of the advice. It’s staggering to consider how many people openly except the point of view of a person who does not at all posses the qualities intended to produce by their advice. Even worse, some encourage others, with the term “open your mind”, to acquire the very thing in their lives that is making them miserable. One of my favorite music groups is Alice and chains and I love their music but to take their advise on anything, except how to play in a band, would be foolish to say the least. I remember in the song Junk, the lyrics went like so…

“You can’t understand the users mind; try with your books and degrees. If you let yourself go and “open your mind” I’d bet you’d be doing like me….and it aint so bad….


Well, he is dead now, from an overdose. You can see where his advice will take you.
Again the term “open your mind” is commonly used to entice taboo sexual encounters that often leave the participants ashamed and embarrassed; sometimes even leading to divorce. Open mindedness often flies in the face of prudence. It’s true that keeping your mind open to new ideas is good but every idea that comes along must be scrutinized from every angle. Take a look at the person giving the advice. What are they advising on? If it’s health, are they healthy? If it’s money, do they have money? If its happiness, are they happy? If it’s spiritual, would you consider them a spiritual person? Be careful when you hear the term “open your mind.” Because more times than not it is a term used to dislodge you from a position that you should fight fiercely to maintain.