Yes. I have changed my opinions about lots of things over the years. Growing up in a communist country I was what I would now call rather right wing. Enemies of my enemies were my friends. Whoever was criticised by the Soviet regime we thought was good. Of course, life is much more complicated than that. One of my bugbears is people presenting opinions as facts. It happens a lot. And it’s no point arguing with those people. Arguments aer only worth it if both sides are willing to listen and possibly change their opinions.There is a joke ” women have cleaner opinions, they change them more often” Well, good for them, I say. It’s the same with prejudices. People often think they don’t have any. We all do, and if we know our prejudices, we can fight them. Instead of generalising about ” all …..are…” So let’s all change our opinions when we hear a better argument. Life will be better if we do.
“No well-informed person has declared a change of opinion to be inconstancy.”–Marcus Tullius Cicero
One of my history teachers said something to the effect that people who choose not to evaluate their opinions may simply be pigheaded. He also admitted that what he said was just his opinion and that he was open to changing it. I don’t remember the context of his statement–perhaps it was during a lecture about Russia’s Catherine the Great. It seems that discussions about monarchs and absolute rulers fuel plenty of debate.
One of the ways that quiet contemplation of our points of view and how we interact with the world is that we can mentally appeal to our “inner court of appeals”. Whereupon we once passed judgment on a person or a particular concept or idea, we can silently reconsider that judgment by taking new facts into consideration.
This practice is not favored in…
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Eva Hnizdo 