I have, on regular occasions, expressed my view that primates only learn before they become adults. The onset of adulthood is the end of an open mind capable of change, new insight. Human adulthood onset is age 23.
Based on examining my thousands of friends I estimate that only 1 out of 200 people is capable of new thought after age 23.
I now have to change my number to 1 out of 175. A very close friend of mine changed his mind for the first time in the decades I have known him.
Here is what happened. After reading Michael Oren’s account of his years’ as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. I concluded that Barack Obama is a vicious person, not just a Jew hater. I had read Oren’s two masterful historical works and even did personal supplemental research on one. Oren is a brilliant, honest and competent man,
What Oren said in his book Ally changed my mind and shaped my views. I occasionally mentioned this to my close friend and he treated it like a ‘good friend with a bee up his ass’.
Then as a last ditch effort, I gave my friend this review of Oren’s book by Elliott Abrams. My friend changed his mind. He now sees what a vicious Jew hater Obama is.
I have had to change my mind from one in 200 to 1 in 175 people can change their mind after age 23.