To Each His Own

I used to feel that I needed people to believe the truth as I saw it. Of late I have started to learn that it is unnecessary. It is not easy, and in fact sometimes impossible to change a man’s mind when he has set his heart on something. That is why we rarely have Democrats who become Republicans and Republicans who become Democrats. There is not always logic to a person’s beliefs, and often times it boils down to blind faith.

In the workplace, I frequently tell myself that my job is to present the facts to my patients as I understand it. But if they were to choose to ignore my professional opinion then, as long as they are informed, they are also free to make bad choices (or choices that I simply don’t agree with myself). 

It is time that I took that advice when it comes to my friends. It is okay to be friends with someone who does not think the way that you do and has opinions that differ from yours. Perhaps we might need to be careful about the amount of time we spend with these people as your company influences who you are. So perhaps if there is too much stupidity you might want to reduce the amount of time you spent with said person, but we do not need our friends to also believe our truths.

Dale Carnegie wrote in his book that to point out a man’s flaws rarely does much to change him. It does however cause the man to dislike you. It causes him to lose face and to become defensive. It rarely changes the course of history. I used to be really concerned with the truth (at least my version of it). But I think Dale Carnegie was right. Asserting the truth rarely changes history.