Yeah you’re right you don’t get rid of it, you can’t stay out, new boundaries are drawn, walls built right away. And when you open up this way you of course allow in new prejudices, you are changed, the seeds of a new or adapted value system are sewn early, the first exposure is often the most formative
It’s a continual practice, bringing the armour into view, understanding the knee-jerk mechanism, making the unconscious conscious. These are ancient mindfulness principles: non-judgment, beginner’s mind, acceptance, trust. Buddhism has anatta, and the meditative practice of observing the likes and dislikes that arise and saying that's not me, that self is conditional and contingent on a billion other things. There's a freedom in watching it move and change through time and space.
‘Teach me something about…’ is an invite to find a chink in the armour. And then of course if it doesn’t work you get to feel great about your armour. How refined and impenetrable it is. This is the pleasure in denial mentioned earlier in the thread, the flirtation, the invite to seduce and the refutation
Other systems have this built in, for leftists its a privilege check, scientists a peer review. Show me my blind spots. For me its dissensus! Tell me exactly how i’m full of shit please!