Receptivity In Orr's Essay 'On Habit'

In "On Habit," de Botton suggests that implying a "traveling mindset," a mindset which requires us to be "receptive," meaning more open to new things. As Gregory Orr recounts his story to his fellow companions in "Return To Hayneville," when he returns to the South 40 years later, where he was taken to jail, along with others and beaten badly, is where his "receptivity" comes to bear fruit. Orr's essay gives an indication as to how his past and present interact on the road to Hayneville. He looks back on time and reflects back on the time and how that changed him as a person and made him who he is now.

In 1965, first when Orr goes to Alabama, it is to participate in the Civil Right Movement. There, they are beaten up for an unknown reason, perhaps for expressing themselves, and are taken to jail. Orr had longed to be a part of a group which would benefit the society in general.
That is where Orr's "receptivity" comes in place, where he notices that he's in a narrow valley with officers who were wearing uniforms of motorcycle cops-- tall leather boots, mirrored sunglasses, blue helmets and sticks, presumably to beat them up. Orr asserts that "this technique was designed to make us prisoners panic and fight one another to get to the safer center of mass", but it didn't work, as the main

Suggesting that only a few people are able to achieve what they are too, while others just fail or are terrorized for no reason, just like how Orr and others were being, for expressing themselves, wanting equality. However, Orr did not join the Civil Right Movement because he truly felt passionate about ending racial discrimination, but rather escape the pain of killing his brother accidentally at the age of