Why is it Powerful to have a Liberal Mind?

I had the idea of coloring my hair to dark red. Everybody looked at me like I am an idiot. I know I will not have the guts to do it, but I like the idea of being different than others. Having red hair will make me different, but not in the significant way, or the way I would want to be. Everybody can color their hair to red, but not many can come up with an idea that will change the society; that will form the future. These people are geniuses. No doubt it`s hard to be that, but all of us can start by being more liberal. Liberal?

I can start to cite Oxford dictionary with the meaning of the word liberalism, liberal or liberty, but now I realize that it is better to start off with my own definition of what I feel those abstract terms mean. For me a liberal person is able to recognize wide range of opinions, cultures or lifestyles and comes up with new ideas or expresses his original perception of the world. He is innovative just by the even slightly different, non black-or-white view of a problem. It is the opposite of conservatism; liberalists accept and look up to change, in the stronger words of Steve Jobs “they have no respect for the status quo.”

So I call liberalism a form of mentality, of a certain type of thinking. Liberalists are therefore those responsible for innovations of any kind. Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Vaclav Havel and thousands of others truly revolutionized the society. Some of them not to a better, but all of them did. These people expressed their ideas that are different. Just the word different signifies the innovation, change. Change, social evolution cannot happen when people think, dress, talk, work et cetera the same.

John Locke, an English philosopher of 17^th century, was one of the first to express the idea that knowledge and individual’s perception is formed only by experience, which originates from senses. There will be a different meaning of an “apple” for me than there is for anybody else in our school, even though it is the same thing. But everybody needs to have some experience with an “apple” to have it a meaning for the individual.

Therefore a school is a place for children to meet all different kinds of concepts. They are taught what numbers are and their meaning and through experience the child builds up knowledge and own perception. If a child does not experience numbers it is impossible for him to even think about it. The same is with ideas. If somebody doesn’t know that there is something like vegetarian movement and isn’t aware of the way animals can be killed in a certain places, it is impossible for him to be aware of this kind of different liberal style of life.

With this hopefully not boring and long philosophical essay I want to say how the liberality of school is important for a development of an intelligent and innovative person. The more a person knows, the more he knows that he does not know much. But also the more he is aware of different opportunities and concepts and his understanding widens. Innovations and ideas come only from experience. Isaac Newton wouldn’t have thought of the gravity, if an apple had not fallen on his head J.

As a conclusion I would like to appeal on students to explore different kinds of ideas; to learn different things, from diverse sources. That is where intelligence comes from. I am glad to feel that Nový PORG has definitely broadened my knowledge and perception and that with other students and teachers we form a liberal community.

Lukas Cerny, 26. 8. 2014