Ponder

In an recent interview as part of the New York Public Library Live series, Malcolm Gladwell spoke about changing your mind in a way that stuck me:

"I feel I change my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that’s your responsibility as a person, as a human being — to constantly be updating your positions on as many things as possible. And if you don’t contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you’re not thinking."

He also had a few things to say on the subject of tolerance: 

"What we call tolerance in this country, and pat ourselves on the back for, is the lamest kind of tolerance. What we call tolerance in this country is when people who are unlike us want to be like us, and when we decide to accept someone who is not like us and wants to be like us, we pat ourselves on the back… So when gays want to be like us and get married, we finally get around and say, “Oh, isn’t that courageous of me, to accept gay people for finally wanting to be like us.”

Sorry — you don’t get points for accepting someone who wants to be just like you. You get points for accepting someone who doesn’'t want to be like you — that’s where the difficulty lies."

What I find most profound about these comments is that he said them. Articulating insecurities has such power if only to make you stop and think