I.39 — Loosening Opinion

A held opinion and a considered opinion can say the identical sentence. The difference is what happens next, when new information arrives that does not fit.

A held opinion treats correction as an attack. Something tightens before the argument is even finished, a rehearsal of the counter, a scan for the flaw in the other person rather than the flaw in the claim. This is a fist holding a position the way a fist holds a stone, by force, at a cost that grows the longer the position is defended.

A considered opinion can afford to be wrong, because being wrong was never the danger. Being wrong, seen this way, is closer to relief than to injury, one fewer error being carried, one thing now known instead of merely believed. The palm can open around a new fact the way it opened around the stone, without first having to be pried.

Try this once, on purpose, with something small. Pick an opinion you hold that does not matter very much, a preference, a minor judgment about a stranger, a guess made last week. Let someone or something change your mind about it. Then notice, honestly, what that cost. If it cost almost nothing, that is the whole lesson, and it is checkable on a larger opinion once this one has been practiced.