Why aren't all opinions equally valid?

By Anonymous

St. Marguerite d'Youville Secondary School
Brampton

A person's point of view is one of the most sacred possessions they can have in life. Even after the most unfortunate individual, who loses everything that he or she has ever deemed important in life will still have their own opinion at the end of their struggle. Opinions, however, are not all neatly classified in a column labeled 'most wise'. A person will not always have an opportunity to voice their opinion because the stage is not set for an ordinary person; life's opinions usually come down to whoever is in charge. The validity of a person's opinion on something ranges from a variety of sources but usually comes down to their experiences, authoritative position and factual evidence.

Experiences are a major influence on the state of affairs in a person's mind. They can literally make or break a person. As many struggle to find there true place in life they interact with as many people as they can to establish their own self – awareness. Plato said that human beings were "always instinctually seeking social connections". A person cannot rely on themselves for survival because humans are interdependent by nature. Humans meet friends, discover enemies and seek mates throughout a process that gives them enough opinions to have an idea of who they are or want to be. A person with a majority of good experiences can truly look to the future with optimism and open – mindedness. A person with good opinions can voice an opinion based on their experiences and they may be heard.Mother Teresa's personal opinion helped thousands and thousands of people. Then again, a person can have their share of bad experiences and have their voices heard loud and clear and have their views echo all throughout history. A person's views can be potentially harmful or could carry new ideas for a better future. Many choose to look to the future with optimism but cynics will voice their view from time to time although, not many will consider their ideas as helpful or inevitably, valid.

Authoritative power can range from a man or woman in the White House to the head of household in another's house, power is given to those who work for it and they rule by the way of their own opinion. Hitler's opinion ended the lives of many of Jewish men, women and children. A mother or father can easily influence the way their child sees different races. But some opinions will be dismissed, some will be censored and some will be heard for what they believe in. Destructive views on any part of humanity have no place in the world. Those with the opinion that certain ethnicities shouldn't be treated as fairly as some deserve to have their right for freedom of speech censored. It took centuries to bring all peoples to the same standing in life and humanity still struggles with the issues, but a negative influence in an authoritative position could have people moving backwards in time in terms of ideas, instead of forwards to the future. A person's view from an authoritative standpoint will be heard by an audience ranging from a small family to three hundred and sixty million people. Their opinion will be stated and they will either be obeyed or questioned. A single person can see the validity of this authority's opinion and judge for themselves on the validity of the statement, but in the end the authority will always have a say in the matter.

Factual evidence is proven pieces of information that will either justify or dismiss an opinion. Fact is always better than the speculated, is always better than the possibility and is definitely always better than rumors. A person can make enormous mistakes if they don't consider the facts compared to the speculated. An example of this was the much speculated justification to the defamation of Iraq. George W. Bush said that Intel inside Iraq claimed that Saddam Hussein was POSSIBLY housing weapons of mass destruction. There was a massive uproar in the United States and people needed only to refer to the events of 9/11 to find good enough reason to enter the oil – rich country. The Bush administration's mistake led to an all out war. Iraq now lies in a worse state than prior to the 'peace – keeping' forces now occupying the country. This is a pure example of why many of us consider the facts before the assumed. The validity behind an view should only be determined if there is truth behind it's opinion.

A person's opinion does not go through a grand process of whether or not the thought should be valid. People will justify these views on a basis of morals and rules that vary from person to person. Experiences often determine these views but optimists towards the future will always be superior to cynics from the past and present. Authoritative position will always carry a large portion of influence but democracy always gives the voice back to the people to judge for themselves. Factual evidence will always be more valid than speculation, because if it is true the opinion is definitely justified. An opinion is dangerous thing in the mind of the intellectual; it has the power to change worlds forever, for the good but also for the bad. Validity in certain situations is the only way to tell them apart but a person's mind and morals will always be the true judge.