Opinion? What Opinion? - Why My Opinion Really Doesn't Matter

 Opinion? What Opinion?

Photo by Lucas Newton on Unsplash

Why My Opinion Really Doesn't Matter.

It seems to be that everybody, and I mean everybody these days has an opinion to share, on everything and everywhere. Whether it be publicly, in your face, or on FaceBook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube. . . literally everywhere. For the last several years, let alone months, the Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp legal drama has been dissected, analyzed, rehashed, and relitigated. People have loud vocal opinions about public figures, politics, religion, climate change, the economy, culture, the MeToo movement, the LGBTQ movement, racism, and everything small and large in-between. You can't take a breath without someone having an opinion about it, often completely unsolicited and completely unnecessarily.

Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Change doesn't occur without discussion Society is, by its very nature, fluid and dynamic. The opinions of others help us consolidate our own opinions and have the power to change how we think and how we view the world around us; for good or for bad. I'm not in any way suggesting the freedom to express our opinions should be silenced.

This is personal.

In effect, writing this is already offering an opinion, my opinion, and thus, what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter. My opinion is exactly that; only my opinion and my opinion really doesn't matter. Not to me, anyway.

Give me any topic, any subject, and I'll readily venture an opinion, even if it's that I know nothing about it and, to me, it's irrelevant. Or not, in which case, tell me more. But who am I? Nobody, really. I have no capacity to change anything. Hell, I can barely manage my own shit, never mind anybody else's. 

However, that is where I am wrong. This is erroneous thinking. My opinion does and can matter, even if it is seemingly a small and insignificant voice among the masses.

I admit that I recently, and rather surprisingly (to me) found myself completely immersed in the whole AH/ JD debacle. It hit home. Personally. And I added my voice in comments on YOUTUBE and, peculiarly perhaps, in signing the petition circulating to have AH removed from the Aquaman movie franchise. Why? Not because I give one single shit about the Aquaman movies, because I seriously don't. I'd never even realized AH was in it, and I don't even like the movie. (I know. So shoot me.) No, my reasoning was that a global franchise should NOT be supporting somebody I personally believe is single-handedly destroying the MeToo movement and calling into disrepute the voices of genuine survivors. ALL survivors, regardless of who they are. 

And my voice mattered. Every voice on that petition matters because without each and every single one of those voices, nothing changes.

Now, I know, I could have loaned my voice to any number of movements or issues. And I periodically do. And that's my point. My small and seemingly insignificant voice does matter because small voices combined make BIG voices, ones that, eventually, must be listened to. 

It doesn't matter on what I have an opinion. My way of thinking may not resonate with anybody else. It may remain meaningless more often than not. However, every once in a while, something I say may have a bigger impact than I will ever know. And yes, I have a real-life example where, miraculously, I learned my opinion made an impact and my voice carries meaning.

I was once a Corrections Officer and I worked in a Women's Prison. One of the basic tenets of our profession, hammered into us at college, was that you never know how what you say or do may impact those around us and to weigh our every action carefully. I did my best to remain positive, to act fairly and without prejudice, and to offer positive words of encouragement to those I worked with; staff, prisoners, their families and associates. Several years after I left the service, I was unexpectedly approached by the family of a former prisoner, and then by the former prisoner herself. They humbled me. In a nutshell, they said my words and behavior had lifted them out of the darkness they had found themselves in and had helped give them hope.

That former prisoner and her family are now friends and that former prisoner has completely reversed her life. She is no longer the person I encountered in the prison. She is renewed.

Now, I'm not in any way claiming I was responsible for that. But I helped. My words mattered. And I had no idea!

Don't be afraid to speak your thoughts. Don't be afraid to venture your opinion. Maybe you're wrong. Maybe something somebody else says will help you to adjust your perspective. And, then again, maybe something you have to say will help somebody else to adjust theirs.