There's Nothing Wrong with Changing Your Mind

I keep thinking about a moment in the second of the two TV debates between those vying to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, and our next Prime Minister. Each candidate had been invited to ask another candidate a question. Rishi Sunak’s question to Liz Truss was this:

"Liz, in your past you've been both a Liberal Democrat and a Remainer. I was just wondering which one you regretted most?"

It was a nasty dig, meant to impugn her character, but it backfired. The only regret I saw was Rishi Sunak wishing he hadn’t asked the question. 

Truss replied that she hadn’t been ‘born into the conservative party’ and that she had ‘been on a journey’. 

She and Sunak may both be Oxford PPE graduates, but she got there from a struggling comprehensive school in Leeds, quite unlike his privileged and, of course, private education. That her school was struggling, and not in an especially wealthy area, is significant.  Sometimes politicians make much of the fact that they were state educated, without mentioning that they lived in a very expensive postcode. It’s rarely recognised that state schools are selective according to parental income, e.g. whether they can afford to live in the catchment area. When the price of property excludes those without large salaries or inherited wealth, the local comp tends to be not much of a gamble.

Of course, Oxford and Cambridge are full of brilliant people, but they also have a fair few folk who aren’t especially bright, but are expensively educated, and ooze with confidence. Making it there from a state education in an economically diverse community really means something. 

It would be wrong to claim that Rishi Sunak isn’t brilliant. He must be to have done what he has and be where he is. And who could condemn his parents for using their success to provide him with every opportunity that was in their gift? But the one thing they couldn’t give him was a real understanding of what it’s like to make your way up from an average background. 

And part of that is finding out who you are and what you believe. It can take blood, sweat and tears, not to mention a large portion of your lifespan. Liz Truss's worldview journey seems to me a sign of strength not weakness.  

She had left wing parents who took her to Greenham Common when she was seven. All things considered I’d say that being a liberal democrat at University showed, early on, that here was someone interested in being her own person. As she put it, ‘I wasn’t born into the Conservative party’.

The painful truth is that most of the time, most people believe what they do because of what the people around them believe. Sociologists of Religion have demonstrated very clearly how belonging comes before believing. So often, people of faith are told ‘I don’t have a religion. I make my own mind up.' And it just so happens (almost always) that the folk telling us this have made their mind up to believe something not very different from what their family believes, or what their friends believe, or a combination of both. 

I don’t see much wrong with changing your mind, whether in politics or religion. In fact I see it as a plus. We can all do this on single issues, but what Liz Truss was describing was a profound change in worldview. Her change of outlook didn’t happen all at once, it rarely does. We should understand the psychosocial pain involved in leaving behind one worldview for another, particularly when doing so cuts you off from your family, friends or community. Just the other day she commented that one of her parents will vote for her, but the other may not. 

We used to hear about the strength of ‘self-made’ people, referring to someone who has achieved financial success from a modest background. Liz Truss is, what I would describe as a ‘self-made believer’.  Whatever any of us think of her politics, I think we should praise this aspect of her character. To come to convictions that differ significantly from your family or peer group is a worthy accomplishment. 

Finally, though I would hope this doesn’t really need spelling out, this applies each and every way round. To be born into conservatism but become a socialist, despite all the sociological and psychological pressure in the opposite direction, is equally praiseworthy. And, of course, atheists whose family and friends are deeply religious, deserve our respect, as do those from religious backgrounds who convert to a different faith. And let us not exclude from this list of the virtuous any young person from a secular background who becomes a Christian in the UK today. That takes some doing.