We Are Brought Up Thinking...

We are brought up thinking that everyone shares our views and

          that they are correct and the only right way of seeing things. In

          Flatland, a novel by Edwin A. Abbott, two men from different

          dimensions argue about which one of their societies is right and

          more superior. They accomplish nothing because each is so closed-

          minded to the fact that what they have known all their lives may

          be wrong. This is the case when it comes to homosexuality in

          today's world or anything that involves looking, acting, and

          thinking differently than us.

              A. Square and the Monarch of Lineland are closed-minded to

          the possibility ofthere being other worlds or multiple ways to

          seeing things different from their own. Outside Lineland all was

          nonexistent according to the Monarch. When A. Square tried to

          explain to him that the universe was made up of more than just

          straight lines and points, the Monarch called these suggestions

          "impossible" and "inconceivable" (P. 46). A. Square shared his

          ideas with the Monarch because in his words he had "to open up to

          him some glimpses of the truth" (P. 47). Neither man could begin

          to accept the possibility that his world and his beliefs could

        be in any way inferior to those ofthe other. Yet the two men

        state their case for what seemed to be a long while.  During the

        course ofthe conversation,

          the Monarch called the Square and his ideas "uneducated,"

          "irrational," and "audacious" (P. 51). The Monarch thinks if A.

          Square "had a particle of sense, [he] would listen to reason" (P.

          51). Upon listening to the opinion that Flatland is lacking so

          much as compared to Lineland, A. Square strikes back, saying,

          "you think yourself the perfection of...