Day 56
2/25/17
How do we form opinions on complex subjects? And more importantly, how do we keep these opinions from crossing the threshold to becoming judgments?
As a person who lives in modern society, in the city of New York – no less, I can’t help but get out from under my rock at times, and catch glimpses of what’s happening in the world. And what I see, from my low humble vantage point, is a lot of differing opinions of what should be, and what’s right. Politicians and rulers have their opinions, which turn into laws and policies. In turn, citizens have their opinions, which either coincide or diverge. The proponents and opposers, in turn, start hashing it out amongst themselves about the righteousness of their opinions.
We are lucky to live in a nation whose first right in the Bill of Rights includes freedom of expression, which means we are are free to voice our opinions. However, these opinions that we have are often jarring and cause people to have fallouts among even close friends and family.
People decide not to associate with people whose opinions drastic so drastically from their own, so they delete them from social media and their lives. I wonder, does the freedom of expression guarantee us real acceptance of one another? How can we integrate expressing our opinions, while accepting that they will differ from others? After all, each of our opinions have a basis for existence, and are (in most cases) benevolent in nature, trying to build a better world. We have subjective views based on our family upbringing, values, religious ties, media, and personal connections to each subject matter. In the end, we are all trying to build a better world and a better future. We need to focus our energies not on judging and destroying, but on finding solutions and building up what we DO agree on.
