Sovereignty

An accusation involving open-mindedness annoys a lot of people, in fact most people get very upset if you accuse them of having a closed mind or a lack of open mindedness, and sometimes it's more insulting to them than disparaging the quality of their lives. A lot of people pride themselves for being open-minded and they often declare it with such honour and self-respect that you instantly think that they must be the world's most open-minded person. And yet the matter still remains that like most things in the world, open-mindedness is very relative and subjective. What is open-minded to me, might be very closed off to someone else and I think that this is very apparent when comparing eastern and western civilizations.
There are degrees to everything and that is understandable, but the thing is people should really differentiate between being open-minded and living in an open-minded manner. For instance, I can be accepting of all the views around me, but when it comes to my own life open-mindedness is very rare and vice versa.

I do think that each person should be accepting and understanding of the people around him/her, but when it comes to your own life, you should lead it the way you want to and in the manner you believe to be beneficial to you and nobody should dictate how your life must be even if you're leading it in the wrong direction. People are entitled to their opinions, but they don't get to judge and belittle you way of life and they don't get to accuse you of being close-minded either. I believe that each person's brain works in a unique manner and it is that unique pattern that our brain forms that we relate everything within our lives and form a comprehensible life-path. People always say "be flexible" and "Consider something other than what is in your mind.", but really, what's the point? My way might be wrong, but then it is my way and I should learn from it, enhance it and perfect it, but not obliterate it. If each person who has a different idea gave in to the public demand of being flexible, we wouldn't have had a lot of the luxuries or basic rights we revel in today.
We might hold open-mindedness as a complement and something to be sought, but we don't really have a measure to how much open-minded we should be or how much of our brains should we let go in favor of being normal. And my answer is none. I am one person who likes to see her ideas come to life and witness their birth into existence and then see the results of such birth and how these become sinister or positive, but I don't like smothering my ideas and my way of thinking just so that I can fit in. This is not open-mindedness, this is surrendering and I would die first than surrender to any external force; my brain has sovereignty and shall remain so.