Two thoughts come to mind. One, this reflects David Brooks's definition of being a moderate, by which he does not mean a centrist though the column that this comes from was about whether moderates could ever congeal into a material political party at the center.
"Moderation is not an ideology; it is a way of being. It stands for humility of the head and ardor in the heart. When you listen to your neighbor, you see how many perspectives there are and you’re intellectually humble in the face of that pluralism. When you listen to your neighbor, you see that deep down we’re the same and you hunger to deepen that connection."
I quote that in my https://medium.com/illumination-curated/can-we-please-all-find-the-space-within-which-to-breathe-the-same-air-and-agree-not-to-agree-6b6b2c8077ec (disclaimer--a very small part of that essay talks about the political compass test that I know you frown upon as libertarian marketing).
My other thought is you may enjoy this poem and the accompanying notes I wrote in March, Of Lenses, A poem on differing perspectives https://medium.com/p/15623c1616c5
PS: I did not receive my subscriber email of this story. Did you check that box when you published it? Asking as part of my investigation into this rampant and purposeful MPP suppression by Medium.
PPS: It’s now the next morning here and I woke realizing I had more bridges to build. Mehmet recently wrote about the benefits of cognitive flexibility and the drawbacks of cognitive rigidity. https://medium.com/sensible-biohacking-transhumanism/heres-how-i-broke-the-chains-of-cognitive-rigidity-and-gained-greater-flexibility-dda604b66144 The former describes the person open to shifting perspectives. I recently wrote a poem and notes piece, https://medium.com/@marcus17043/nonconformists-are-not-rebels-fdacdb633a58, subtitled “But we are evolutionaries,” which you, Douglas, did read. While reading Mehmet’s piece I realized that while conformists and rebels, as I define both, are on opposite ends of a spectrum, they are both cognitively rigid while the nonconformist, whom many but not I would call a rebel, is cognitively flexible. Similarly, the conformists, who are evolutionary and nonviolently revolutionary, display the openmindedness you discuss here.
