Letting yourself be wrong

One of the most frustrating things I've come across in my life is how many people can't admit or accept when they're wrong about something (or anything).  Slightly more frustrating is how many people will flat out deny that they're unwilling to admit they could be wrong.

I'm not listening! LA LA LA LA!

There's a lot of lip service out there, but I often find that people are just mouthing words (and you can tell that's what they're doing because of what they're saying). They don't really believe, in their heart of hearts, that they could be wrong.  Because (they "reason") if they were wrong, obviously they'd realize it (apparently by some magical means), and then they'd stop holding that wrong idea.

What this really means, at its core, is that every idea or belief they have is the right one because they have it.  It's the same ass backwards reasoning Nixon exposed in his interviews with Frost.  The idea that if it is the President of the United States who does something, it can't be illegal.  When you put it like that, most people will agree that's backwards, that the President of the United States is not above the law.  Those same people will also respond positively if you ask them "Have you ever made a mistake?"  or "Have you ever been wrong about something?"

The thing is, most of the time they'll only agree in the abstract, or about things in the past.  They're very seldom wrong -right now-, today, in this particular argument.

The first step people simply must take if they want to avoid being hypocritical, ignorant, or hateful, is to learn to admit that they could be wrong.  Not giving lip service, not agreeing in some general, philosophical way, but actually looking at some idea or belief that they have and testing it against reality to see if it really holds up to honest scrutiny.  It doesn't have to be anything earth-shattering or deep.  Just give it a go.