We can safely wager that just about everything we hold to be true at this point in time is wrong or incomplete. That is what history teaches. Since we are likely wrong on most things, why would we not be open to change, even seeking it? A sixth century Chinese proverb says, "We will end up where we are going if we don't change direction." Why not be willing to give up at any moment who we are in order to become all that we can be?
 
By tenaciously holding to present beliefs, progress weeps. Society owes its advance to those who have dared to differ, not to conformists. But "psychosclerosis" (hardening of the intellect) and "neophobia" (fear of new ideas) are at epidemic levels and always have been. Nobody is immune regardless of their station or credentials. In fact, the more expert, pompous, and sure someone is, the more likely they are infected with these intellectual diseases. Will Rogers said (roughly), "It's not what they all know for sure, but what they know for sure that just ain't so that's bothersome."
 
Belief is difficult enough to overturn when it is just treasured ideology. But today, belief is almost always coupled with an economics that has grown out of it. Effecting change under these circumstances becomes almost impossible since people will not give up the flow of fortune or livelihood easily. For money's sake, people will keep a death grip on the status quo long after the quo has lost its status. Why else does Earth polluting industry remain in place, socially ruinous politics endure, oil-dependent transportation continue, and a life-robbing health care system flourish?
 
Even science (which is supposed to mean open discovery) does not welcome change that challenges conventional thinking. Proving and supporting existing theory and the consensus view keeps scientists plenty busy and with abundant grant money. Scientists believe their work is a search when in fact it is more like institutional rubber stamping. If there is out-of-the-box discovery that does not conform to accepted dogma, and if it is important enough to threaten funding or profits, it is cast aside as an anomaly and not pursued with open-minded vigor.

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​Scientific progress proceeds as follows: new ideas are first ignored; then if they persist they are ridiculed; then the proponents are persecuted; and finally, when public outcry and the market make it wise to convert, science takes credit for the discovery and claims it as their own.
 
The chronicle of intolerance is endless. Hundreds of years ago a Renaissance scientist, Galileo, was put under house arrest for life for publishing the heretical idea that the Earth moved. Semmelweiss, the 19th century Hungarian obstetrician, was thought insane for arguing that doctors delivering babies should first wash their hands when coming from the autopsy room where they were carving up cadavers with bare hands. Physicians used to denounce midwives as witches and many continue to spurn them today in spite of their proven advantages. Albert Einstein complained about attitudes toward his new ideas: "Fashion abides over every age without people realizing tyrants rule over them."
 
Although the card-carrying intelligentsia would have us believe that conformity to accepted dogma is progressive and informed, consistency is the refuge of the unimaginative. In fact it's hardly worth an intelligent person's time to be part of the majority. By definition, there are plenty of people to do that. In fact, if you find yourself on the side of the majority (even within a little group that has broken from another majority), you can almost count on being incorrect. The majority are usually not right, so, we must be wrong (in the majority view) in order to be right.
 
Change can be messy since institutions must be torn down to build new ones in their place. It is always easier and tidier to leave things as they are. But change is exciting and fun because once the mind is expanded to the dimensions of a new idea, it never returns to its original size. So be an iconoclast and shake the foundations of ideas that "just ain't so." Followers are never remembered; truth-seeking rebels are.