Someone once said that opinions are like butt holes, everyone has one. With that brilliant ANALysis behind us (sic!), here is what concerns me.
By definition, an opinion can never be wrong. Everyone has one. Everyone thinks that their opinion is right. Everyone thinks that their opinion is just.
Because of the personal nature of opinions, no one should say anyone else's opinion is WRONG.......
........calling someone else's opinion WRONG makes it PERSONAL......
.......... making it PERSONAL creates ARGUMENTS and DISCORD.
If you disagree with an opinion, argue about the opinion and not about the poster. Calling someone by ANY derogatory names, criticizing the poster for his opinion in ANY WAY makes it personal. VERY PERSONAL.
I think that the internet is a wonderful tool. In fact, it will change our civilization profoundly. What requires us all to so is behave on the internet even BETTER then we do in front of people. Why? The very nature of human communication is oral and visual. On this medium. writing replaces the oral aspect of communications but people can not see our facial expressions thus placing on even higher premium on what we say. One never knows what will offend people because we can not see peoples physical reaction to what we say.
Yes, I know. In the "heat of the moment" words may be thrown out that shouldn't but that's not really an excuse. We ALWAYS have a choice of what we want to say. Further, if you have offended someone, whether by choice or by accident, then how hard is it to apologize? I have yet to see anyone die younger or become sexually dysfunctional by APOLOGIZING for something. It doesn't matter if you think that you are right, apologizing will DISARM any personal conflict.
I am sorry for being a bit didactic. I really like this forum and all our posters. I think that the administration is doing a great job. This post is by no means a crticism to the administration but rather a call, a personal begging for all of us to try a little harder. We have a unique opportunity to exchange opinions within and between our communities and establish understanding with people that some consider "enemies'". Respect for one another and tolerance for others opinions will take us even further.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.
Regards
Spartan
I very good post Spartan.
I would say everybody has the right to have an opinion but nobody has the right to judge other opinions as wrong.
The problem of the internet is that you only communicate with words which in fact make up only a minor part of communication (even if we have smilies it canīt change too much).
--> Therefore everybody should put real emphasize in the right selection of his words.