I knew a kid in college. Average looks, squinty eyes, admirably tall and moppy hair. He had this unusual gait. He blamed Roger Fedrer for it which for some reason I didn’t get. It wasn’t the gait, nor the unruly mop of hair which made him unique to me, it was the fact that he agreed with everyone about everything which helped him stood out from the crowd. I know I might sound little weird when I say this you must be wondering whats unique about that? But I firmly believe that he was. He agreed about anything and everything. Nod his head of even on the most ridiculous ideas. He was a yes man. Sometimes I would find him saying ‘Bon Jovi – Oh I love them’ and on his Ipod you’d hardly find some band close to them, closest to them was Greenday – Yeah I know it’s a shameful comparison. Anyway this kid had no side of penny to bet on. He would side up with a Manchester United fan and the next moment he would yell ‘Go Chelsea’. It all bordered on weird. He sided with the both parties when it came to an argument, diplomatically letting both know he was with them. If you could have seen the subtle drop of hint you’d be amazed. Once when I mapped out his no-opinion psychy I asked him why he did that, since he wasn’t dumb so he can’t blame his brain on no idea policy, neither was he a robot since human by nature is partial for one thing as to other – so why o why would he do that? For one he was amazed that I actually zeroed in on this and in the next short breath he said “Anam you gotta play the game, agree with everyone about everything, once they know you agree with them it boosts their ego, you are suddenly their friend and they trust you simply even if you just listen to the music they listen, easy way to stay in everybody good books’
PEOPLE PLEASER! ! – my mind shouted, but then I kept my opinion to myself. Would I succumb to such weird politics of psychology, where you don’t have opinions on how a freaky Lady Gaga is? – well I hope not.
In a world of opnions, where you have clubs on ‘Black Nail Color Lovers’ and ‘Quidditch is better then Lacrosse’ – Likes on facebook, people thrive on opinions. Everybody has to has an edge on whats happening under the sun. Facebook likes are the best example of that. What started as dedicated Pages to weird ideas such as ‘We hate the toaster that burns our breakfast’ and ‘The urge to yawn between a conversation’ soon changed into a Like-Lists. Apparently it was heedless to make a whole Facebook Page for an idea now you can just add your idea to one of the Like Lists. If your idea is twisted enough you will soon be hit by 30k Like mark. People are tweeting their opinions of on about a new movie they watched and how Taylor Lautner is next Clooney, they are sending tweety-pinions (opinions on tweets) out in the world to the invisible people, comforted in believing somebody actually cares!
In today's world if you don’t stand up for something, even if it is as ridiculous as I Love the Color Purple, people are going to roll over you with a bulldozer of their inflated self esteem. They are going to push you down with their notions and ideas – which necessarily are not in any need of authentication. If you observe opinions are based on gut-feeling and have nothing scholarly adjacent to it. When speaking politically or medically however they are based on some prior judgements before again betting the final verdict on the – gut feeling.
Its amazing how human self worth is often tied to people agreeing with them. For some celebrities it literally keeps them sane. Plus its equally amazing how someone’s ‘twisted opinion’ is all it takes to go down in history. Remember the colorful slinky we all played with when we were little? The coiled springy thing. Well that came from World war 2, well left over weapon was being shipped to being ‘re- melted’ somebody yelled ‘In my opinion these would make fun children’s toy’ – and that is what exactly happened.
However all is pretty when you are talking about colors, celebrities and football clubs, but things go ugly when you ‘voice your opinions’ about your rights, about drone bombardments and massacres. For them it’s a freedom of speech when they make shameful cartoons .In their opinion you become ‘ racist’ when you pass your opinion about how ‘whites’ call you ‘brownies’ or ‘fresh of boards’. You become ‘extremist’ when you follow your fundamental teachings. You become ‘terrorist’ when you try to protect whats your own. In my opinion – go to hell.
I draw the line at Freedom of Speech turning into Freedom to Hate – its safe to say that thank God I am an opinionated person.
