Opinions, Our Particular Judgments Of Reality
When do we start to form opinions? We do it from an early age and we also build them on our environment and ourselves. An opinion is defined as an idea, judgment or concept that a person has or is formed about something or someone. The opinions are respectable and their heterogeneity is an undoubted source of wealth and inspiration for creativity.
By listening to what others think, what they say, we have the opportunity to reflect on other possible points of view. And we have said reflect, because … That does not mean that every opinion is true! They are simply personal judgments, with no guarantee of validity. But … both those of others and ours; in this sense, opinions always have a point of subjectivity.
An opinion is not a truth, it is not news or fact
That is why it is so important to differentiate them from statements based on proven facts, those truths that can be verified (not argued). An opinion is not a truth, it is not possible to affirm an opinion. The opinion may be more or less well founded or more or less well argued. On the other hand, forming opinions about people or situations lightly promotes different degrees of injustice that do not have a firm basis and also do not have a valid foundation.
It is very important to know that our mind works with the information it has at all times, so that opinions made and released with little information do not usually survive a debate in which weighty arguments are handled. In any case, let’s not forget, contrary to what we have all thought at some point, that changing your mind when there are solid arguments that invite us to do so is a smart attitude.
Another consequence of seeing opinions for what they are, a leap into the void that always involves risk, is prudence when issuing them. People who see them like this usually collect a good amount of information before sharing their opinions, just as they tend to listen carefully to the arguments of others … and not so much to reaffirm their arguments, as to try to falsify their own opinions.
What happens when we bring them to conversations?
It is essential to separate opinions from statements; If we do not do it, the consequences are not pleasant and in many cases these opinions or their way of expressing them as affirmations, can and usually are hurtful. Hence the importance of this concept: opinions are too often used as truths, forgetting that they are personal judgments.
L. Austin, in “The theory of speech acts”, differentiates two territories: the territory of affirmations and the territory of statements. Opinions (personal judgments) are part of the territory of statements. A territory that is related to validity and coherence and not to truthfulness. The certainty of possessing the truth and being right in this territory is a trap! An illusion or mirage like the one we could perceive in the desert. In addition, it does not usually leave room for other ways of thinking (mental models) or to develop mental openness, preventing us from being aware that personal experience is a conditioned reality.
And what happens to the people who fall into that trap?
They assume that reality has to fit with how they perceive it, so that others should perceive the same. In any case, if they don’t, it would be biases of their perception, never their own. They become “sincericides”, they communicate their opinion without being asked, using as an excuse the abused sincerity that as a virtue is flagged to commit “sincericides”. How sincericide imposing his truth!
In this way, they are trapped in that stagnation that prevents their adaptation to other forms of thought (mental models). They need to be right to feel safe and protected… How important it is to be right! This need that sometimes becomes imperative and causes rational disagreements to become very, very heated and meaningless discussions.
Why is changing your mind so frowned upon?
Deep down … Why this need to continually reaffirm our opinions? When many times the only thing that happens is that we change our mind about something or someone, giving a good example of our flexibility and open-mindedness, and being consistent with the new information we have received. In no time a simple change of opinion will make us stop being who we are!
On the other hand, opinions, reflections and thoughts can be shared, but that is not why we are going to be right, we only share the same vision on some subject. It can be in a more or less coherent way, it can be more or less valid opinions … But, let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that any hypothesis or prediction opinion is more real than another! Thus, Steve Jobs, in his famous speech at Stanford University in 2005 said:
