As I've gotten older, I've become satisfied with holding fewer opinions. Less certainty. I still believe things, sure, everyone does. But I'm not invested in having opinions for the sake of having them. I've seen through example where that can lead.
Sure, this can make me appear wimpy. But that's not the truth. The truth is that my best survival strategy is to keep on looking and learning without unnecessary burdens.
Sure, this can make me appear wimpy. But that's not the truth. The truth is that my best survival strategy is to keep on looking and learning without unnecessary burdens.
2 comments:
I think what you've said is there's a big difference between received opinion and informed opinion. The massive quantity of information that’s available at our fingertips doesn’t matter nearly as much as how effectively we make sense of it all, and what sense we make of it. Transforming opinions into informed knowledge gives credibility to our thoughts.
Unfortunately, now that we live in the whirlwind world of Twitter etc., where everyone has the opportunity to share their opinion with millions of people at the click of a button, many have come to believe that not only are they entitled to their opinions, but that others are required to respect them.
Then there's George Carlin's opinion.
It can be difficult keeping a steady line of thought now, can't it? Maybe that doesn't bother everyone. But I need stretches of quiet time, when I can collect my thoughts and my calm.
When cell phones came out, well, first of all they were still huge. And only people in a short list of professions carried them. But even beyond that, figuring on them being inevitably miniaturized, I wondered who on the earth would want to be connected all the time? Who would want the potential to have any experience they might have interrupted by a telemarketer or pollster. I still wonder that, but apparently many people do. Maybe it's so they can air their opinions for the public at any time.
Carlin was grumpy even by his own standards in his later years, but brilliantly so.
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