Since access to many forums of opinion (this editorial space for example) is strictly curtailed, one might be tempted to agree with the proposition that people are entitled to their opinions, but add the caveat that they are not equally able to express them.

We all know people who are adept at explaining the thinking that lies behind their opinions on any number of matters, but are without a forum from which they may do so. Some simply don’t have the ambition or the temerity to express themselves publicly. Writing a letter to the editor of your favourite publication (hint, hint) is a tried and true vehicle for self-expression, but one’s efforts may fall victim to the whims of the editorial staff, or to space constraints. There are also those who may prove stirringly loquacious over a couple of pints at the pub, but who fell between some educational cracks and can barely put their name, let alone a coherent sentence, to paper or to blog. In each instance, there is less a failure to use reason than a failure to communicate.

This is true in many ways. Many hold opinions that are the trappings of a political or cultural affiliation - Republicanism for example. Unfortunately such folk are apt to respond automatically to certain key words and phrases with “the party line,” without benefit of reflection on the topic that set them off. There are tenets and dogmas attendant to pretty well any movement, and adherents often adopt them “chapter and verse” to display their allegiance to the cause. Many do so without rigourously analysing the context and prerequisite conditions that their opinions require to place them in their belief system’s hierarchy, and are therefore unable or unwilling to express them in any depth. Opinion often  becomes conviction without the inconvenience of contemplation.

Bumper stickers, catch phrases, clichés – these are all mechanisms by which we encapsulate concepts that are familiar which would otherwise require a more complex usage of words and phrases to convey. They are similar to “received” opinion in that they are shortcuts in language, and in the thought processes that are requisite to thoughtful communication. 

An unfortunate corollary to the phenomenon of received opinion is the tendency some people have to disregard statements and ideas expressed by their conversational counterparts once a position is put into play. Recent editorials that evinced responses from readers are cases in point: respondents seem to have a button pushed by a topic, and fire off retorts from which the  only insight gleaned seems to be that they didn’t take the time to understand the totality of the opinion before attempting to rebut the piece. It is a waste of everybody’s time when one begins to formulate a rebuttal before studying the entirety of an argument, and a waste of energy and a sign of unwillingness to truly engage when ad hominem comments are included in the mix.