Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Padme and open-mindedness

This gal that I knew from grad school, Padme, said that people should strive to be rich because it stinks to be poor. I pointed out that one doesn't have to be rich in order to escape poverty. That is, she was guilty of committing the fallacy of the excluded middle.

Her response, "You're just being close-minded."

What a strange duck. Apparently, being open-minded means that one should agree with her. By her response, she showed that she was incapable of discussing the issue in a principled manner.