When Does Changing Your Mind Become Integrity?
Consistency is useful, but only when it serves truth rather than an older version of the self.
We praise people for being consistent because consistency makes them legible. We know what they stand for. We know what to expect.
But a person can be consistent for two very different reasons: because their principles still fit reality, or because they are afraid of being seen in motion.
The second kind of consistency is often mistaken for integrity.
Integrity is not loyalty to every position you have taken. It is loyalty to the process that made the position worth taking.
If that process includes evidence, reflection, and honesty, then changing your mind may be the most consistent thing you can do.
What are we actually preserving?
Sometimes we protect an old opinion because other people built expectations around it. Sometimes because we announced it too loudly. Sometimes because revision feels like handing victory to someone we dislike.
None of those reasons make the old opinion more true.
A changed mind does not erase the earlier self. It can reveal that the earlier self succeeded: it built a person capable of noticing more.