The Tolerance of “I Might Be Wrong”

A long time ago, I wrote a post entitled “Truth and the Right to be Wrong.”¹  I said in part:

“I believe that some things are right and that some things are wrong.  But my certainty does not make me think I have the right to force my beliefs on others … because I think we all have the right to be wrong. …

Some will object to my concept of ‘the right to be wrong’ on the ground that I am disrespecting them and their beliefs when I say they are wrong. That is not true.  In fact, I am giving them the ultimate respect: I am defending their right to believe what they do even though I know they are wrong. …

The point of the right to be wrong is that I have no right to force others to agree with the truth as I know it.  They have a right, subject to proper limits, to believe as they do, even though I know they are wrong – because they, like all of us, have the right to be wrong.”

I think I would write this post a little differently today.  I still believe in “the right to be wrong,” but I think we also need to approach questions, and other people, with the idea that we ourselves might be wrong.  Even if we are not wrong on basic principles, we could easily be wrong on what those principles mean in terms of policy and governance today.

Let me give an example.  Based on what I said here, I don’t think we should try to impeach Donald Trump.  I understand the motivation behind the desire to do so, but I think it could backfire.  I am worried it would give President Trump something he could use in a comeback campaign.  I think it would be better to ignore him for the next nine days and have him leave office with the stain of last week as the last thing people remember about him.  But I could be wrong, and I am willing to listen to other people’s views on the question.  

I can think of lots of other examples, but I will let readers come up with their own.  It may be a little hard at first, but think about policies or ideas you have supported.  Have they always worked out like they were supposed to?  Or were there problems?  Did things happen that you didn’t expect or were there unintended consequences you didn’t anticipate?  Or maybe, even, was the idea wrong in the first place?

I’ve certainly had that happen.  Things haven’t always turned out like I thought they would.  I was sure that “X” or “Y” was the right thing to do.  And they wound up not working.  Maybe I should have thought about the possibility I might be wrong beforehand.

In other words, instead of merely defending a person’s right to be wrong, we should defend a person’s right to disagree because we might be the one who is wrong.  If we can accept this idea, then we might find we are willing to listen to other people more.  And they might be willing to listen to us more. 

But most of all, if we accept the idea that we might be wrong, then we might not get as upset with people who disagree with us.  Because, after all, if we might be wrong, they might be right.
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¹ I wrote something similar here: “Tolerance and ‘The Right To Be Wrong.’”