OCTOBER 17th - Keep an Open Mind



On this day in 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States, having fled the persecution of Nazi Germany. Einstein had been banned from working in all universities of his homeland and had seen his books publicly burned because of his Jewish background. I think that may be dumber than Hitler deciding to invade Russia. You should never invade Russia. It is very cold. But here you have the smartest man in the world, probably of the 20th Century, and quite possibly top five all time and Angry Adolf's insane ideas and prejudices force him out of the country. You'd think that Hitler would be bragging that the man who won the Nobel Prize for the Theory of Relativity was a German. A genius is not a commodity one comes by every day. Instead he put a bounty on Einstein’s head. Chalk it up as one of the reasons that megalomaniacs who promote bigotry and racism will be struck down. The megalomania has a little to do with it. But so does the myopicness that comes with having rigid beliefs that suppress others. Einstein couldn’t be right or valuable because he was a Jew? That’s just silly. Of course so was the belief that Jews were somehow inferior. Thomas Jefferson would have bitch-slapped Adolf right upside his silly little stash. TJ would have been like, “You’re worse than King George. But I guess it’s all relative.” Punny TJ. You see, the thing is, most people develop prejudices. They stereotype and judge based on appearance and jump to conclusions. Most people probably wouldn’t have thought that Albert was going to change the way humans thought when he was working as a Swiss patent clerk in the early 1900’s. You shouldn't let those prejudices corrupt your mind to the point where you ignore something exciting and beautiful because it comes from a place you didn’t expect. Your prejudgments shouldn't permanently affect the way you deal with people you do not know. That kid who cuts your grass and always mows over your petunias might be doing so because he’s developing how to make cold fusion work in his head. Of course it is more likely that he’s thinking about how hot Jennifer Lawrence is. But he wouldn’t be wrong, would he? So keep an open mind. I dare say Einstein would want you too--and he was pretty smart.

This day has been Marked.

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