The Proliferation of Opinions—Do You Have One?

Who doesn’t have an opinion? That answer may be more chilling than you’d immediately presume. I’m a talk-radio, print-columnist and online content junkie, consuming more daily info than is probably good for me. Sometimes it’s an essay from someone I respect, but most often the content is heartfelt reaction (reaction to whom?) to syndicated columnists and talking heads expert at eliciting emotional reactions from their listeners and readers. Makes for quick road trips and typically, helps me form a position on issues.

The proliferation of commentary makes you think, and that’s the basic point of why people seek out others’ opinions. It should be utterly immaterial what your political, religious, or private life is all about to other people—it’s your life, you should live it without fear of response or consequence by others (presuming you abide by social & legal ethics). This includes the opportunity to speak your mind, state your case, and support your beliefs with your own thesis points.

Team of Rivals, a book about Lincoln’s cabinet by Doris Kearns Goodwin, bears this point out with incredible clarity. If you read it and understand these magnificent thinkers based on their own ideas and insights, most of the insights in the book are captured from their own daily journal entries. Lincoln and his cabinet were largely moral observers and political philosophers who overcame their individual base-level conflicts for the greater good of a young country. Differences between them were openly debated, and concessions to better points were made frequently. Except for the occasional duel, disagreements were kept in perpetuity on private papers, and not in the public eye. Compare this to the current political debate that takes place on You Tube, cable TV and the blogosphere. Nothing is private, and policy influencers cannot afford to be under the radar.

Today, media offers us the ability to read and form opinions as never before. Aggregators like Matt Drudge (The Drudge Report is one of the best) gather opinions across political spectrums and help readers create and debate opinions. Countless bloggers offer commentary that readers can chose whether or not to read and respond to—all in an effort to elicit conversation, perspective and debate on topics important to them.

In today’s media world there are no limits to available information and no excuses for being uninformed. Certainly, it will take an unidentifiable event to drive people to again document their ideas on paper journals, and forego the ease of electronic storage. So it goes. I have immense faith that people are destined to tire of forwarding emails that by association, they hope purports their own thinking, and will again rely on distinguishing their individuality through their own written ideas.

The Web and ease of electronic communication is a great forum for expressing your opinions and thinking on your own. My hope is that people take advantage of this. Quite a difference from the days of Lincoln when opinions remained in dusty journals destined for historians, but I’m buying my first journal today.