Marc Legare is a philosopher and motorcycle adventurist.
He has travelled extensively, worked and lived in Australia, US, and across Canada.
He has a varied working career including: Firefighter, Lawyer, Navy, Motorcycle Importer, plus others.
He chose to return to southern Saskatchewan because of his family's deep roots here.
As a columnist, Legare's columns will offer food for thought.
The problem with opinions, is that everyone has them. Too many of them. It goes without saying that in order to function, drawing conclusions is necessary. However, do we need to always have an opinion? Can't we give our overstressed selves a break from time to time and not have a point of view on virtually all things? After all, we cannot care, study, or be knowledgeable on everything.
When was the last time you heard "I don't have an opinion" on the plethora of current, hot potato, social issues? It seems saying "I do not know," is far less spoken recently and the expectation to take a side looms over us like a stormcloud. Worse still, it is dangerous to utter the blasphemous statement "I don't care" when asked your sentiment on any current societal calamity. Let us remember it is completely human not to have the emotional energy to care about everything.
I am not suggesting that we should be lame or "wet noodleish" in life. Meeting someone who claims not to have a point of view on anything is a test of one's patience. Yet, there is a line to be drawn between taking a stance on something and having opinions ad infinitum.
In our world of endless information it is impossible to be well informed on every topic, piece of news, social issue, state of affairs, or the mountain of alleged problems we face. Not only can we not know everything, we don't need to know everything. We are all human and therefore limited. We all have a mere 24 hours in a day and we cannot stay abreast of it all. There are many things touted as issues of great importance that have little to no impact on us. There is no shame in dismissing some of those things that are out of our control and out of our lives.
Saying "I do not know" or "I have no opinion" can be emancipating. It allows us the opportunity to concentrate on things that are more pressing and relevant. Staying unaffiliated at times can minimize the stress of the human tendency to defend an opinion once expressed. Another benefit of being more cautious in expressing endless assessments, is it reduces the need to backtrack when corrected. After all, the more opinions we have, the more likely we are to be wrong.
We would do well to remember there is a great deal of difference between someone having beliefs and being an opinionated person. It is trite to say the latter has a negative stigma. The unspoken testament that someone is opinionated is not only because of the overdone immutableness of their positions but the excessive volume of them as well.
It is a waste of time and energy to make a judgment on topics beyond our scope of reference. This is damaging to ourselves collectively because it takes vitality away from other real contributions we can make. Winston Churchill made a wise comment by saying, "Maturity is realizing how many things don't require your comment." We need not be at the centre of each and every issue.
Where in the book of life does it say we need to take a position on everything from politics to plastic bags? Our personal world becomes a great deal more peaceful and productive when we are kind enough to ourselves to sometimes stay neutral. In doing so, we avoid some of the burden of having to carry a garbage bag full of positional beliefs on every subject imaginable. Besides, with the media pumping out new troubling issues by the hour, that garbage bag is only getting bigger.
The modern media's assembly line of manufacturing socially troubling affairs is in full swing. It is up to us individually to minimize its negative impact and having "no opinion" on much of it can help. Let's give ourselves a bit of relief in our over-blown, media fuelled, social issue soaked world. Giving ourselves permission to take no position on the ever expanding list of politically correct melodramas is one way to get some rest.
But that is just my opinion...
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
