In My Opinion ,,, What Does That Really Mean?

     Hello Gather member(s) welcome to my little random musing. I was doing my normal household chores today and the gears in my little brain began to turn. After a few brief moments of smoke and putting out the fire, I thought this might make for a great little article that sparks some thought in other people. I love to make people think, just ask my kids who will take drastic escape measures each time the words "okay, let's think about this" exits my mouth. If you feel this article would interest you, read on and feel free to add your own thoughts on the subject. Remember there are no wrong responses here, each person is allowed to speak exactly what is on their mind. I am not looking for affirmation that I have had some sort of epiphany ,,, that would have been a total meltdown instead of just smoke and fire. This is just a thought to invoke some genuine conversation between our diverse community.

Gather is a site that deals deeply with the voice of opinion. It is a human need to be understood and heard in a world so busy that we often get lost in the crowd. Gather members are busy too - articles are spewed out faster than an automated factory producing parts. Variety is the mainstream as topics range from the mundane to the philosophical; from family matters to politics. Quenching ones thirst for new ideas; spontaneous thinking; debate and humor are met with a multitude of pieces from the technicality to the general. Every thought put down to words by our distinctive community is open to the opinions, viewpoints, ideas, outlooks, critiques, disagreements, agreements, statements and accurate statements of each individual who views the article.

     Now amazingly enough my little brain went off the beaten path here and I wondered why I felt compelled to list each of these individually. My only thought is that I must have been brilliant in a previous life and some minuscule glimmer of it must have broken through. You see each and every one of these words though slightly similar hold different definitions. They are as follows:

Opinion -- "A personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty."

Viewpoint -- "A mental position from which things are viewed."

Idea -- "A personal view."

Outlook -- "A habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations."

Disagreement -- "A difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions."

Agreement -- "Harmony of people's opinions or actions or characters."

Critique -- "A serious examination and judgment of something."

Statement -- "A message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts"

Accurate Statement -- "A message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) characterized by perfect conformity to fact or truth ; strictly correct"

Regardless of their similarities and differences we have a habit of grouping all these unique definitions into the classification of "An Opinion." This might be why there are so many disgruntled members out there. Perhaps they are not looking at which one is being expressed when reading an article. A writing that offers up insight, a personal experience, or some other topic that does not rely on fact would be open to almost any of the above except the two types of statement and the critique. Inevitably you will read an article of such genre and feel one eyebrow cock upwards in exasperation, as your mind screams -- are they on drugs?  Where did they dig this up from?  Do they really think before they write?  The truth is that regardless of which direction the opinion goes in, no matter how vacuous it may appear to the reader who disagrees, it holds validity because of the definition of the word opinion.

     Personally, I think that a combination of actions factor into what we call "our values, beliefs and opinions." It is not the same for every one, each person relies on various scenarios which is one of the reasons each individual position is unique. I believe some of these factors may be: things that we hear, events we experience, lessons learned from the events, our emotional reaction to life in general, these are some of the many issues that may factor into our views.

     There is also the question of how we go about deciding on our opinion. Do we rely on what we hear from others such as friends, family and coworkers? Is it formed by listening to television or radio broadcasters and talk shows? Is it a personal search for information and facts that help us decide what we believe. In some of these cases one might argue that what is expressed as a person's opinion is in fact not what is considered a true "personal" opinion. Rather it is the acceptance of someone else's sentiment, in short an adopted point of view. Have you ever questioned where and how your opinions, beliefs and values have been formed?

So, what do you think?