In my opinion

By Rhona Canoy

SO… Too many things are happening in the world these days. In truth, lots of things happen every day. But we were blissfully unaware of most things for the longest time until the internet made it possible for us to know every single event, resulting in an awareness overload.

For those of us who keep a constant finger on the pulse of social media, there’s a certain degree of cynicism and being jaded which comes. The negativity that pervades the feeds seems to be a factor, if not a catalyst. In truth, I’ve gotten bored with Facebook and Instagram, both for specific reasons. Instagram because there are only so many pictures whose meaning escapes me, that I can look at.

Facebook has outlived its original purpose if we are to believe the reasons why Zuckerberg created it in the first place. According to the man, it arose out of a wish to provide connectivity for himself and for his friends who were away at college, to be able to still be a part of the lives of those they left at home, to be aware of what the family is doing, and to lessen the ache of homesickness.

Of course, we know how that blew up into what it is today, along with paranoid fears of data mining, no-filter posts and rants, and things that people should only write in a locked diary. And now that news and current events from media outlets have found their way into it, things have gotten (as they say) complicated.

Actually, what overloads me is the irritating fact that everybody has found a billboard for their opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and all that dung. I’m not even going to argue the validity of that. But I argue the validity of everyone thinking they’re entitled to shove their often-too-shallow opinion into my consciousness.

Everyone feels that their thoughts warrant some attention. Or maybe they’re looking for affirmation by knowing that others are just as shallow as they are. We seem to have lost the art of worthy opinion-making if you ask me. Take this column that you’re reading as a case in point. Who am I to say that the perspective (for that’s what an opinion is) which I present to you for your consideration is worth considering? Really?

Maybe my opinion would be better served if aired over a cup of coffee or an ice-cold beer, with a trusted group of people who may or may not share my view, but would give a reason for a healthy and well-rounded discussion. For isn’t that what opinions are for? To expand our consciousness? To make us aware that maybe our view is not the only view? Or, even better, the wrong view?

Let’s get this out there. A war is looming on the horizon. This one is relatively worse than all the local “wars” we have been so passionately opinionated about. Worse than the drug “wars” and the corruption “wars” and the “wars” against poverty. The Middle East, Iran in particular, is brewing. What is your opinion on that?

Here’s what. What may have begun as an idiotic (in my opinion) decision by the American President to authorize an airstrike in Iran is now a dark cloud looming on everyone’s horizon. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader, was killed. Which, of course, resulted in the Iranians being provoked and now poised to retaliate.

We don’t know how this is going to play out. Some doomsday sayers believe that a third world war is imminent. What isn’t apparent to many is that a third world war will result in devastation worse than any mankind has ever seen. What with our capacity for destruction finely honed and vastly improved, any war on a global scale will leave nothing behind. And it will be because two global bullies decided to face off, and the rest of the world (which will include us) will decide to take sides.

I have dealt with schoolyard bullies for many years now. And this is nothing different, as a matter of principle. You have two strongly opinionated individuals who each refuse to open their minds to the possibility that the other party may have some worthwhile insights so that some kind of understanding can be reached. Beginning to sound familiar? All conflicts arise because of a tightly-held opinion.

Sadly, now that everyone feels entitled to one, and feels that their opinion is vastly superior to others, the conflict is easy to predict. Couple this with the truth that we’d rather involve ourselves in a negative situation than a positive one, then this feared third world war is more than just a possibility.

We waste so much time on negativity, on being judgmental, on thinking that we are right and the other party is wrong. I used to ask when we lost the capacity to be able to talk things out. Lately, I’m wondering if we ever had the capacity at all. I don’t know that my opinion is worth anything. I mean, I do write this column for this paper every few days, as do others. In all media outlets, for that matter, there are always opinion sayers.

If you can take the time to ponder the validity of my words, why does it seem so difficult to do so for the bigger and more important issues? Look at what I’ve loaded you up with, through the few years that I’ve been doing this. Nostalgic memories of old Cagayan de Oro, my dogs, rants about my frustrations with our educational system, pokes at parenting skills. Nothing earth-shattering really.

What an opinion is supposed to do is to give someone with an opposing view a reference to think about, to consider and weigh. Instead, our opinions have become the line drawn in the sand which determines what side you’re on. I would rather that the exchange of opinions is intended to erase that line in the sand and arrive at ideas that would be of intrinsic value to all.

And at this point, my blind men and the elephant come vividly to mind. I suppose until we all admit that we are blind to some degree, nothing will come of our opinions. And because I’m already vision-impaired, this lesson has come hard-fought but valuable to me. We all can’t see everything so we must depend on what others see to have a clear vision of the bigger picture.

Of course, only if we’re interested.