what open mindedness?

I was reading an online article and I consider it is such hypocrisy that "open-minded" people remark that religious teachings and values are narrow minded and discriminatory.

I learnt from my economic geography classes about neo-liberalism and the washington consensus. these are ideologies that the West (namely US) impose on the rest of the world through numerous means. Basically, they advocated free trade and open economies and democracy and deregulation. and anything that went against that, such as protectionism, were all bad and should be changed. But people have questioned.. are these truly good for everyone? Have these ideologies serve to diminish inequality and poverty for others? have these serve the development of the world? or are these simply agendas of the West that inherently contain formulas for them to better themselves and maintain their supremacy? Anyway, just look at the kind of crisis it has thrown us into right now.

Similarly, the West has advocated new ways of thinking and living. Being open-minded, radical, and all-accepting are the only ways we can move forward, they say. and these ideas have been mobilized and are moving into many developed parts of the world (where people are supposedly better at thinking). Many of us who are Western educated, especially students who have been a part of such environments, bring home these "modern" ways of living and promote them here. Then again, people have questioned.. are these truly good for everyone? are they appropriate for every society in the world? Do these radical ideologies and the stripping of "narrow-minded values" serve the development of people where they are being championed for? or do these simply serve the agendas of those who can benefit from them? aren't these mentalities a part of the reproduction of capitalism, where they tell us what to consume and how to consume? aren't these mentalities promoted by the gay community because they need these in order to better themselves? Many don't realize the mess it has made with our minds.

what i am trying to say is, people don't realize that they are simply subscribing to ideologies that tell them how to live their lives without really, really knowing what is good and what is not for themselves. There are many who subscribe to religion without truly knowing and understanding why and how, and they are criticized as people who simply follow what they are told in the bible, and are controlled by the Church and by an invisible God. Don't people outside the Church (or any other religious institutions) also realize that their lives too are controlled by the ideologies of others? and to say that a huge proportion of these people are simply blind followers of radical values isn't too far from the truth.

Even the celebration of postmodern rationality over religious theories of faith are also mentalities that have been socialized into our living. This way of thinking is inherently politicized in the grapple for power, just as how religious philosophies are argued to have been made superior in the long-ago past for political purposes. Which is truly better for us, we'd never know.

I don't have an answer and I have no right to say what is good/right and what is bad/wrong. What I know is that we have to be aware and think beyond the thoughts and mindsets that we just take for granted, and really decide for ourselves what is best for the people we love.

I have learnt that saying life is beautiful, and simply living life thinking that it is is not enough. I have to first know what beauty truly is.