Making your mind up

Bucks Fizz 1981
"Don't let your indecision take you from behind
Trust your inner vision, don't let others change your mind"

This was a typical Eurovision song & it won. The lyrics are appalling, but I don't think the refrain is bad.

It seems to me that making your mind up involves a process, unless you feel god like & omnipotent. Indecision isn't good, but neither is a decision based on too little information. You can't go through life without making decisions. Surely a decision based on consultation & research is better, even if it involves a delay & changing your mind.

Why is changing your mind regarded as bad, especially in politics? Mrs Thatcher, with that characteristic stridency, said "the lady's not for turning" about doing a U turn in 1980. Personally I wouldn't want to emulate that over confidence in my own singular judgement. I'd rather listen to other, informed points of view before reaching a momentous decision.

I do think that we all have an inner voice which guides our actions & decisions & often that initial reaction will be the right one for us. I would like to think that I can be persuaded by more cogent argument though.

Information & circumstances change all the time. It is often difficult to know what facts or whose opinion to believe. Making your mind up has never been more complex in this age of instantaneous opinion & data.

So, if a politician changed his / her mind is that so bad? Doesn't it show that they are prepared to admit they were wrong initially. Isn't that braver than holding on to a mistake rather than losing face? Don't we all want honest politicians, if that isn't an oxymoron? Is it realistic to hold politicians to standards which we ourselves can't achieve? We are all human after all.