The Death Of Opinion

When my niece was 10 years old, her teacher taught her about opinion. She explained how important it is to have an opinion and how everyone needs to exercise their opinion.

The teacher proceeded to write the word opinion on the chalkboard. Then she told the class to write their opinion. My niece wrote the word opinion all over her paper. She thought that was what the teacher wanted.

I find my niece's story funny and interesting. Although her 10 year old mind didn’t comprehend what the teacher meant, her tabula rasa still processed it her way.

We are a society of opinionated individuals who try and push their opinions on others. When someone doesn’t agree with us, we get bent out of shape and can’t understand why they “just don’t get it.”

However, is our opinion based on what we think others want to hear or does it come from our own experiences and they way we hear. My niece's teacher clearly knew what she wanted the students to do, but my niece didn’t hear the teacher’s intent.

Opinion is important. It is a belief or conclusion held with confidence but usually not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof, but it is something in which our views are strong.

Some people think that their opinion is the only one that matters and one opinion is usually dominant in newspapers or television news stations because those mediums want to sway an opinion, but we owe it to ourselves to form our own opinions and not be bullied by someone else's view.

Frequently, opinions are also disguised as intimidating facts to make us feel bad if we don’t go along with a popular stance. Your opinion is just as important as anyone else’s. It is your right to be yourself and not let anyone else influence you.

Even this post about opinion is just my opinion. You can agree or disagree. You get to have your own opinion here. No pressure to have mine.

What is your opinion on opinion? Do you think we have suffered a death of many opinions to highlight only popular views?

10 Options Of Opinion

“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes”
~Voltaire

“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.”
~Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion”
~Chinese Proverb

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
~Marcus Aurelius

“Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.”
~Albert Camus

“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”
~Plato

“There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.”
~Winston Churchill

“Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion -- and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion... while truth again reverts to a new minority.”
~Soren Kierkegaard

“My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you're ugly too.”
~Rodney Dangerfield