‘But you said something completely different then.’
I did. That sentence can expose an excuse. It can also describe ordinary learning: something has become visible that I did not know, or did not understand the importance of, at the time.
Yet changing an opinion can seem more suspicious than defending it. Stability carries a sense of reliability. Change can sound like wavering, even when the unchanged answer has lost contact with reality.
I have been wondering what I want to remain faithful to. My earlier sentence, or the concern that led me to form an opinion in the first place? They do not always take me to the same place.
A value can remain while the answer changes
If fairness matters to me, I may need to reconsider what I believe is fair. If I value responsibility, I may have to admit that my chosen approach fails to account for its consequences. Correcting course can then express commitment to the original value.
That does not remove the need to explain the change. Other people can reasonably ask what changed and why. Trust needs a connection between the earlier thinking and the new thinking. ‘I think differently now’ is a beginning, not the whole explanation.
Perhaps I could say: I thought this consideration was decisive. Now I understand that I gave something else too little attention. That is why my conclusion has changed. No elaborate confession, simply an honest account of what I have learnt.
Does my own thinking get to stand still?
Sometimes we hold on to an old position because we said it aloud. People remember. Our pride remembers even better. The more certain I sounded, the larger a correction can feel.
But is my earlier certainty a sufficient reason to continue with something I no longer believe? That would be a strange way to respect myself.
I am not looking to change my views with every passing breeze. I also want to distinguish a considered change from a wish to make things easier for myself. That distinction is not always immediately obvious, which is why it deserves patient thought.
Perhaps consistency could also be judged by whether I am still willing to look at the same question honestly. Even when that requires saying aloud: on this point, I think differently now.
