Change Your Location, Change Your Mind
Anybody who doesn't change their mind a lot is dramatically underestimating the complexity of the world we live in. - Jeff Bezos
Geography impacts thought and actions more than any external factor. I’ll explain, but first a story about Malcolm X.
Within the walls of confinement, Malcolm X transformed himself. He converted from a life of drugs and crime to an educated life in The Nation of Islam.
Malcolm began by copying the prison dictionary, page by painstaking page. He improved the shapes of his letters and the clarity of his mind. As he learned more words, he started reading books. He drank in their knowledge like water from a fire hose. In his autobiography, Malcolm wrote,
[F]rom then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge.
After ‘lights out’ every night, Malcolm would read by the dim corridor light in 58 minute stints. The other two minutes he spent faking sleep as the guard walked by. Every night, until 3 or 4am, his learning continued.
Later in life, a reporter asked Malcolm X, “What’s your alma mater?”
“Books,” he replied.
“Where else but in a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day?” he wrote in his autobiography.
Malcolm’s reading supplemented the learnings from his new religion, The Nation of Islam.
In prison, Malcolm X transformed from a person who interacted with white people, to a racist and segregationist. In keeping with his religion, he believed the white man was the devil, and he believed the races should be separate.
Prison was a catalyst for numerous changes in his thinking.
After his release from prison, Malcolm X spent 12 years preaching the word of the prophet Elijah Muhammed. He built temples across the country. He spread the message that the white man was the devil. He preached his religion every single day.
Then the tides turned. As quickly as he joined the religion, Malcolm was banned from it.
A confusing time in his life, he decided to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. On this journey, Malcolm X met many orthodox Muslims - some of whom were white.
Upon entry to Saudi Arabia, Malcolm’s passport was seized, and he had to appear before a council - not uncommon for Americans in Saudi Arabia at the time. Before the appearance could happen, he was saved by a Saudi local with connections to the rulers.
The man took Malcolm home and let him stay in his personal suite. From his autobiography:
That white man - at least he would have been considered “white” in America - related to Arabia’s ruler, to whom he was a close advisor, truly an international man, with nothing in the world to gain, had given up his suite to me, for my transient comfort. He had nothing to gain. He didn’t need me. He had everything. In fact, he had more to lose than gain.
This was the first time Malcolm X looked inward to ask if he had been wrong about the white man. Again, from his autobiography:
In America, “white man” meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about “white” men.
Yet again, a change in location prompted a change in thinking for Malcolm X.
On his pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X traveled, walked, slept, and ate with people of every complexion and color. It was his first experience of true brotherhood regardless of appearance.
“On this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions,” he wrote.
Malcolm X’s experience is not unusual. Among those who travel - or live in dramatically different areas - the ability to change one’s mind is a common skill.
Like Malcolm X, we need to collect experiences through education and test those experiences through travel. Only then can we hold opinions based on representative truths.
And when we travel, we must remember this line from Marcel Proust: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” For traveling within our comfort zones brings no perspective, no revelation. Malcolm X didn’t learn to value white people by walking solely among blacks.
The goal of travel should be stepping outside your version of normal. Seek experiences to counter your common wisdom. The more events in your mind that don’t jive with one another, the more questions you’ll have to ask yourself.
“Is my belief supported by facts?”
“Did I just observe something contrary to a previously held belief?”
It could be something as simple as cuisine. Before moving to NYC, I thought I didn’t like Indian food, or sushi. But I had never tried either. One or two exposures and I quickly changed my mind.
But it could be something as complicated as race. You can still grow up in parts of America where a white person would never have a meaningful interaction with a black person. The same is true in the opposite direction. Racism is an easy belief to hold when you’ve never been exposed to the people you supposedly hate.
Change in location brings a change in experience. And novel experiences can prompt changes in opinions. This is why I advocate for compulsory national service. We should force our youth to venture to parts unknown and build a bundle of experiences far from the comfort of their childhoods.
Of course, the impact of geography on perspective isn’t an original idea.
Mark Twain famously wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
And the idea has transcended centuries. In this more recent example, Sahil Lavingia reflected on his naive self-image as a tech founder in San Francisco before moving to Provo, Utah - a cultural 180:
My days were filled with friends that thought like me, and meetings in which we patted each other on the back. We knew the solutions to the world’s problems — the rest of the world just had to catch up.
Sahil's time in Utah taught him most people are reasonable. Most people are concerned with feeding their families, being treated fairly, and improving their situations. Most people don’t fall into the caricatures painted by the brushes of CNN or Fox News. Most people will listen graciously to your opinion and reply civilly with their own.
My experience is similar.
I grew up in a tiny rural town in a red county. Nearly all of my classmates were white. Many were second and third generation natives of the town.
After high school, I attended college in a small city. Then I moved to New York City where I lived and worked for seven years.
From high school to college to my professional career, I've worked side by side with minimum wage workers and millionaires. I've lived in white, black, and Asian neighborhoods. Each of these experiences helped me understand how other people live, how they think, what they worry about, and what they aspire to be.
I don't understand everyone. Not even close. But my experiences afforded me the ability to appreciate different perspectives. Each unique perspective is valid in the eyes of the beholder. I don't have to agree, but I'm a fool if I don't at least acknowledge.
While I may not agree, by understanding a person’s experiences, I understand the origin of his opinions. This helps with humanizing. It helps me realize if I disagree with someone politically, we can still be friends. He isn’t bad. He isn’t necessarily wrong. He’s just lived a different life. He has different experiences. And those experiences led him to a different conclusion.
I think the goal here is to collect experiences. Be it through travel, living in different locations, reading about people unlike yourself, or having conversations with people from different backgrounds. Fill your treasure chest with the gold of perspective.
The more perspective you have, the more understanding you can be.
You’ll lean toward open mindedness like a plant tilting toward a sunlit window.
You’ll change your mind often, which is a mark of intelligence.
You’ll be a better neighbor, a better citizen, and a better friend.
We can’t all travel the world. We can all leave the comfortable locations of our beliefs. We can explore ideas far and wide. And we can open our minds to change - just like Malcolm X did again and again.
