There are a lot of things about the world that I can't quite understand or figure out. And one of the strange phenomena that I never could understand is, the presence of opinionated people on earth. I can't get how these people are able to feel so decidedly and strongly about everything and every person on this earth; when I can't even decided on whether I prefer french fries or baked potatoes.
I'm scared, no, actually, I'm terrified of having an opinion sometimes. I'm a person who cannot decide whether I'm left-wing or right-wing, whether I'm for democracy or socialism or communism or whatever-ism there is. Am I a fence-sitter? Am I an apathetic ignorant fool? Am I an uneducated person who is incapable of logical rational reasoning or thinking? Am I an indecisive wish-washy person who is easily swayed by other people's opinions?
I wish I could lay claim to all of the above, because it will just make life so much easier, not having any brains to think and rationalise and taking things at just face value, and therefore not exciting any sort of expectations of any sort. But my point is, by agreeing and validating a single view-point, a single political or social system, a single philosophy, a single whatever; having one and only one view-point, isn't that too simplistic a view of anything and everything, and just taking things at face value? While there are some things that cannot be compromised, like morals and certain values, I do hate it when people dictate absolute opinions and condemn absolutely and with no room for argument other opinions and theories.
In school, when I learnt Economics, every theory that was put forth always had a set of assumptions in order for that theory to work. In order for Perfect Competition to work, prefect world conditions had to be assumed. Take that away, and the economic theory of trade based on Perfect Competition falls apart. And I think that is a very sensible approach to anything and everything. Take Communism for example, given the correct conditions and with a structure and system in place, it could jolly well work! It's just a pity that there are greedy people in this world who hoard the resources instead of distributing them out, and even if we have perfect people, people aren't just smart enough to administer billions of dollars worth of resources for millions of people anyway. At least not yet, until they build a super computer maybe. On the other end of the spectrum, democracy is well and good, but if the masses of people that could vote and influence important decisions are just not capable of making good and wise decisions, we'll just end up having a popular decision but a bad one that hurts everyone. So can we say the democracy or communism, or socialism or whatever is the panacea to all the ills of a single society? So I just don't get how can anyone so absolutely deride and denounce and condemn anything so absolutely.
As with riding a bicycle, there should be a balanced approach, considering the wind factor, the road conditions, the social environment. Some people just need tricycles; they're not able to ride the mountain bikes yet. Some ride at a leisurely pace, and there are people like Lance Armstrong who can amazingly ride and ride for miles and miles and miles. So who's to say what is the one type of bike everybody should own. I personally, will go for a stationary bike because I am a road hazard on the road with a bicycle. And yes this analogy is not the best analogy yet, but I can't come up with a better one presently. You'll have to wait until I become less stoopid about things. I'll let you know when that happens.
In the meantime, if I don't proffer my opinion, it will probably mean that I either don't have one, which is the case a lot of times (I'm an ignorant fool you see!), or that I have one, but I'm willing to hear what you have to say and am open to an alternative viewpoint. Please don't try to shove your opinion down my throat though, because that is one thing I am absolute about, I hate pompous and arrogant know-it-alls.
2 comments:
I love the openness (does that have two n's?) of this entry, however, I don't like the way you're so negative towards yourself... Come on Olivia, your confidence is one of your best qualities! ANyway, I like where you're coming from, unfortunately nobody has the scope to understand other peoples perspectives, and expect what's right for them to apply to everyone else. I wish I could find articles like this in the Sunday papers!
I think they call it self-deprecatory humour. And oh, you are too kind kg. ;p
Post a Comment