An Opinion on Opinions

Sounds like a tricky place to start, for this opinion piece will also be subject to any critical analysis of opinions done here, putting its credibility at risk. Supposing that such would only improve the quality of the exposition, this should be an interesting exercise. Why then do opinions deserve this author’s great opinion, one might ask. This piece is an attempt to rationalize an activity we perform day in day out. On matters of weather to western civilization, opinions fill our mental landscape every day. Where do they come from? How is it that it takes us such little time to comment on pretty much everything? Such indulgence on the brain’s ability is beyond the author’s capacity.

A better line of questioning might be to ask why we do it. After all, our lay opinions serve little purpose, don’t they? Our opinions on government will most likely not affect policy, our views on history will not change the facts, nor will Jose Mourinho change his team formation even if I disagree. Why then do we do it? If we were to classify all our actions into those that give us pleasure and those that give us pain, giving an opinion is likely to fall in the former category. There is something gratifying in expressing your ideas or thoughts on any issue, especially so when someone asks you to.  There is something about the act of giving an opinion that boosts the ego. Hence it isn’t surprising that when someone disagrees with our opinion, it is often discomforting and feels like a personal attack. There is seemingly very little that is noble or useful about giving opinions.

One might say that such is a very pessimistic opinion on opinions. After all, the exchange of opinions helps improve our understanding of many issues we might hitherto be less sure of. Assuming that better understanding of issues helps us as citizens and as individuals, a good question to ask, in economic parlance is, how to make this exchange most efficient. How do we, as a community, indulge in opinions, in a manner that enhances welfare and leads us closer to the truth?Again this is an important question to ask because the very nature of opinions is such that they can produce none of the “improvement in understanding” if done the “inefficient” way. Examples of this are all over the place. Donald Trump’s opinion on NAFTA (while waving his tiny hands) was “…a very very bad deal...” , the kind of statement that doesn’t help us a lot with understanding the truth, unless you replace NAFTA with ice cream.

So then are there are any principles or canons to abide by to improve our quality of opinions? Here is where an understanding of what an ‘opinion’ means should be quite helpful. The current standard definition of the word ‘opinion’ is the following: “A view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge”. This shows that there can be different kinds of opinions, some which are plain beliefs based on hearsay, some based on personal experience, some based on gathered evidence and experience. That leaves us with the choice. Which kind of opinions would help us build a better society and citizenry?

Before this sermon comes to close, an interesting observation remains to be examined. Most of the platitudes one hears, advocate giving rather than taking as the higher action. An individual, if looking to understand the truth, should however take opinions from others before giving out one’s own. In this way, when one finally gives one’s opinion in the end, the opinion is well measured, based on more facts than before and could help bring everyone closer to the truth.