The truth about opinions

This semester, I found myself writing about increasingly personal issues in increasingly abstract ways. For both classwork and this column, I’d often resort to invoking authorities, including national statistics and recent research, and I’d ultimately dismiss the experience that inspired the piece of writing as irrelevant or trivial. I would have been satisfied with the easy explanation for this—my own insecurity—if I didn’t see many of my classmates struggling with the same tension between using factual knowledge and personal opinion. The better educated and informed we become, it seems, the less likely we are to have and state categorical opinions. However, without such opinions we lack a springboard for gaining new knowledge, and we commit self-censorship instead. It’s frustrating to think that the occasions on which I’ve refrained from expressing an opinion, including interactions with friends and classroom debates, might have been those where my opinion would have proved most effective. Opinions should be founded on personal experience, not fact.

Opinion formation would ideally be an intuitive, personal reaction to objectively-presented facts. In a sense, being opinionated is simply a matter of being attuned to the formation of belief in oneself and others. But because we engage best with people, not ideas, our opinions are more often a reaction to the opinions of others. In class, for example, we demonstrate understanding of new material exclusively by expressing an opinion or extension on it. The capacity to form opinions on abstract movements is supposed to translate into decision-making and presentation skills, so opinion formation seems inherently social. There is a distinct sense of relief associated with arriving at an opinion, but maintaining one requires further investigation that might ultimately defeat it.

It’s certainly difficult to form an opinion without preparing it for someone else’s ears. People seem to feel that it’s imperative to express their opinions as soon as they have them, and such expression implies and often finds an audience. Identity and certainty lend credibility to opinions, and critics and those with experience are often privileged. Conversely, prominent political and creative figures with unfounded, provincial, or ill-researched stances tend to reach the forefront of our media by sole virtue of the forcefulness, parsimony, and consistency of their positions.

Opinions are often associated with their authors in cases of multiculturalism and racial discrimination. A fellow Spectator columnist has stated in her article that in the case of perceived prejudice, it’s the effect on the audience and not the intention that matters (“Right-wing prejudice,” February 21). But if that’s true, it would seem necessary that every opinion writer is responsible in turn for the perceptions and actions that his or her own views inspire. This defeats the purpose of starting a debate with readers. Many online forums presuppose a wealth of different opinions, with personal experience playing a key role in justifying anonymous comments—however, an opinion presented anonymously is only an opinion in the weak sense, with no person to back it up.

In this column, I almost always chose my topic as an explicit expression of personal perspective. A lot of college journalism and activism hinges on strong defense of hyperbolic opinions with a defense of their ramifications, and framing of such debates is key. Along with the rapid-fire nature of new media, this kind of atmosphere can encourage a lack of responsibility for, and quick extrapolation of, opinions. A well-expressed opinion strikes a balance between defending one’s stance and actively encouraging productive discussion on the topic.

Plato once described belief or opinion as the route from ignorance to knowledge. It seems fairly obvious that an expressed opinion should reflect authority and conviction, but these are features of a person, not a piece of writing, and effective communication is only hampered by the self-censorship that we are tempted to commit.

While writing papers and following the example of some academics, we are often nudged toward dogmatism or submission. Opinion is the ignored middle ground: It is largely a feature of character, but character invariably develops with time. Opinion is not a distraction from gaining further knowledge, a reassuring refrain, or a way to narrow perspectives to accede to the expectations of others.

Zeba Ahmad is a Barnard College junior majoring in psychology and philosophy. Any Road Will Take You There runs alternate Thursdays.