Gemma Tognini: Changing your mind enlarges your heart

Gemma TogniniThe West Australian
the ABC of changing one’s min Illustration: Don Lindsay
Camera Iconthe ABC of changing one’s min Illustration: Don Lindsay Credit: Illustration: Don Lindsay

What do the following people have in common. Abraham Lincoln. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mark Latham. John Newton. And F.W. de Klerk. Heck, let’s throw in the Apostle Paul, just for LOLZ. What do all of these people have in common?

It’s an unlikely cohort and truthfully, one that could be vastly expanded but they should be enough to give you all a hint. The answer is simple. They all changed their minds. Radically, and (in a few cases) changed the course of history. These people (and, as I acknowledged, so many more), their stories, share one common trait. A common theme.

They have, some gradually over time and others more swiftly (let’s face it, the Apostle Paul had a bit of “help”) allowed their views to evolve. On issues of great significance not just at a political or national level, but matters highly personal, too. They went from A to B. In some cases, A to Z.

Let’s take a quick look, shall we? John Newton was a former slave trader who eventually denounced the practice, and in so doing had a profound influence on a man named William Wilberforce, a social reformer who was instrumental in seeing slavery abolished throughout the British Empire. In fact, Wilberforce died shortly after the Act to free slaves throughout the Empire was passed through the House of Commons.

While we’re on that topic, consider the shift of Abraham Lincoln on the subject of slavery.

Lincoln famously grappled with it, originally in favour of a gradual repealing which included measures such as compensating slave owners and repatriation of slaves themselves. The Emancipation Proclamation changed all that.

His view evolved.

Fast forward a century or so and US president FDR accepted American opposition to intervention in European affairs when he took office in 1933. Pearl Harbor changed his mind, his actions and arguably, the course of history.

Closer to home and in more recent history, I invite you to cast your minds back to 2004. The ALP was being led by Mark Latham (good times, remember?) and the party’s official position was against same-sex marriage. Many who voted along party lines later became some of the most vocal advocates and campaigners for a change in law.

You could argue that all in politics are bound by the deals that deliver their respective positions, but I don’t reckon it’s always so, especially on deeply personal issues such as this. Views evolved, the law changed, impacting the lives of many Australians. And Latham is now a convert to One Nation.

The South African leader F.W. de Klerk, a conservative whom Nelson Mandela once described as “trapped in apartheid”, stunned the world in February 1990 with a speech at the opening of parliament, which outlined the end of apartheid. Much later, he would tell journalists how he began to understand the views he’d held as a younger man were simply wrong.

These days, a person can be excluded at 45 for a view they held at 25. How absurd.

Evolved views. Changed minds. So valuable, so critical yet in the recent political environment, not so much. These days, a person can be excluded at 45 for a view they held at 25. How absurd. A person can be pilloried instead of praised. Why has engaging with ideas and considering the possibility that our own views could evolve, become rare?

A person can be excluded from a job, a community. They can be denied promotion. Judged unfairly and harshly in the present, for a view they may have held in the past.

The words backdown and backflip get thrown around a lot, but let me tell you this one thing.

There is a great chasm between a person who allows their views to evolve and change over a period of time and because of experience, and a person who is like a ship tossed on a stormy ocean, blown by the wind of every shifting thought.

Sometimes a view requires incubation to evolve, sometimes it changes instantly.

Look at John Howard after Port Arthur and of course, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s recent, immediate and steely declaration that New Zealand’s gun laws will change.

Allowing our ideas to evolve and develop, especially over time, is the sign of both an inquiring and intelligent mind.

It indicates a level of self-awareness and reflection that says — maybe, just maybe I was wrong about that.

Perhaps a big part of the problem is the fact that few people want to engage in ideas any more. Everyone’s all about the feels. It’s cheaper and easier but ultimately I reckon, a disposable way to live.

Who wants that? I don’t.

Engaging in ideas requires character. The desire to enlarge your mind, and potentially your heart. That’s no small thing when you think about it.

So perhaps it’s time to think about changing your mind.

GemmaTognini is managing director of GT Media

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