I saw a quote, author unknown, that said, “A person is starting to progress down the road to wisdom when he begins to understand that his opinion is just an opinion.” I don’t know about being on the road to wisdom, but I’ve always known my opinion counts for little. I’ve never been able to talk anyone into believing anything that I do (not that I ever really wanted to); in fact, I can barely get anyone to listen to any of my opinions, especially those based on years of research because of course, to them, their opinions trump mine.
What seeing that quote did was turn on a light in my head. If my opinion is just an opinion, then so is everyone else’s, which means, I can give their opinions as little credence as they give mine.
Which leads me to wonder: if opinions are not anything beyond a mere attitude or personal view of something and don’t really mean anything, then what’s the point? More than that, if everyone’s opinion is equal, it means that the opinion of a person who has spent a lifetime studying a subject, such as history or politics, is exactly the same as the opinion of a person who watched a ticktock video and now thinks they know the truth.
This wouldn’t matter if, in fact, opinions didn’t mean anything, but they are dangerous in the hands of people who know little. For example, some of the young people who want socialism think it means being social. That’s a dangerous opinion since it can lead down a road most of the people in the USA don’t want to travel. Opinions are also dangerous when vented in front of people who don’t believe those opinions, because to certain groups, their opinions are the only “right” ones and everyone else needs to be excoriated for their views. Most dangerous of all, of course, are news media that packages opinion as fact.
On the other hand, sometimes opinions really are useless. For example, more than three-fourths of the country wants secure elections, but the people in Congress who are supposed to be representing those three-fourths refuse to do what people want.
So . . . opinions. Everyone has one, they say, though most people have a whole slew of them, some based on nothing more than “feelings.”
I don’t know what to take away from this “opinion” post, but the quote, at least, made me think about opinions in a different manner. Will it change anything? Probably not, though by giving this topic a piece of my mind, it might help bring me peace of mind. So that’s something.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One
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