‘Often wrong, but never in doubt’
Some people refuse to ever change their mind. ‘Once I’ve made up my mind, that’s it!’ they say, zealously. And there’s often a hint of pride and a glint in the eye when they say it, as if this is an indisputably good thing – we all surely know that changing our mind is a bad thing, a sign of weakness, a sign of a prevaricating, namby-pamby, oscillator-in-chief.
Here are some of the things that ‘we’ used to believe but have changed our minds about over the centuries:
- The Earth is flat
- The Sun is an all-powerful God-being and the Moon is one, too
- The Earth sits at the centre of the universe
- Human sacrifice will aid crop fertility, human fertility, tribal power… you name it
- Plagues are a punishment sent ‘from above’
- Slavery is perfectly defensible
- Bear-baiting and dog-fighting are just good sport
- Some races are naturally superior to others
- Bleeding people is really good for their health
- Fairies, Leprechauns, wood-nymphs and elves are living among us, just playfully out of plain sight
- Eating carrots will surely give you superhuman vision
- Left-handedness is a sign of evil
The list is very long. If anyone still believes any of these things, oh dear, but many of them – if not all – were commonly-held beliefs in the past.
John Maynard Keynes said, ‘When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?’ Who can argue with that?
There are three important additional points to be made here:
- Sometimes the facts themselves don’t change; WE change. The fact that the Earth is a sphere hasn’t changed over the centuries; WE changed our mind in response to new information.
- Sometimes – perhaps often – it’s not about ‘facts’. People take a view on all sorts of things, based on their feelings, or instincts: the greatest-ever actor, or film, or singer, or rugby-player; our favourite food or colour or car; even our political views. We may well use ‘facts’ to support our own views but other people may use different facts to support theirs – the very different views held by contemporary economists, for example, may fit into this category – indeed we may often use the same facts but just interpret them differently.
- Sometimes we just change our mind, over time; we don’t even necessarily know why we have made the change, and it might happen incrementally or suddenly.
The willingness to change our mind is a very good thing. Malcolm Gladwell wrote: ‘I feel I change my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that’s your responsibility as a person, as a human being – to constantly be updating your positions on as many thing as possible. And if you don’t contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you’re not thinking.’ I like how this presents changing our mind as a sign of growth.
Albert Einstein said, more pithily: ‘The measure of intelligence is the ability to change’.
Of course, if we change our mind every three seconds, that is not a good thing. If we do that, we will never ‘stand for’ anything and other people are very likely to ignore our words and mistrust our judgement – ‘Yes, No, Maybe’ is not a good long-term position.
The willingness to change our mind, not just in response to changing facts, but in response to our own reflections and the reflections of others, has much to commend it. A C Grayling, whose essays I like very much, talks passionately about the ability to reflect critically about everything as one of the most important outcomes of a good education. I agree, and I’m unlikely to change my mind on that.
