We live in a society today that really encourages people to be inclusive, “politically correct," and diplomatic. People shy away from conversations about certain things as to not offend others. We look at certain issues with the perspective that everyone can have their own perspective or opinion on a matter. This has become unhealthy in a lot of ways.
Firstly, this outlook actually discourages personal opinion. People become so afraid that others will label them judgmental for disagreeing with an opinion, but isn’t that the point of having different opinions? I observe a world today where people are laying down so many eggshells that it will soon become impossible to have a difference of thought. That’s scary to me.
But more to my main point, people have forgotten what the definition of “opinion” actually is.
There are two categories of truth -- known and unknown. These are unique to each person. For example, a stranger’s birthday is known to the stranger, but unknown to me.
Additionally, there are two characteristics of truth -- objective and subjective. Objective truth is inherent to the object, whereas subjective truth is the subject’s evaluation of the object. For example, “the phone is black” is objective and inherent to the object, objective-known or fact, while “I like that phone” is how the subject evaluates the object, subjective-known or opinion.
Now, opinions are very important. They make us who we are and define our personality. But they do not define the world.
There is also subjective-unknown, which I would call imagination or that which is impossible to perceive or evaluate. But the category that people neglect and most often confuse for opinion is the objective-unknown category. If I ask you what my father’s name is, you can guess that it is Bob. Maybe that’s his name, or maybe it isn’t. But it doesn’t matter if you know it or not. My father’s name is objective. If you have a conversation about whether aliens exist, that is not an opinion. They either do or they don’t -- it’s objective-unknown.
Objective-unknown can be titled theoryor belief.
Confusing or ignoring the difference between opinion and theory/belief by means of careful and cautious conversation leads to sloppy and careless thought.
I’m not saying that we have to argue and fight until the other person concedes that you’re right. That’s actually a contradiction of what I’m saying. My point is that there are truths that people pass off as relative when they are not. And while we may believe different things, we can still live in respect of each other.
In this frightening reality of objective-unknowns, we have to realize that some are right and some are wrong, but it’s more dangerous to ignore the conversations than to have them.
Food for thought.
