I'm not anything if not opinionated. I think its good to be opinionated. That's what I'm talking about.
I've seen far too many people without opinion than I'd like. Or at least who I presume are opinion-less, for lack of a better word(Maybe sans opinion!). I mean, I'm only half as opinionated as some people I know, but still I end up being the most, in many conversations I've had with most people I've met, of late. And it saddens me. It saddens me that people think knowing a little about the time lines of Indian history, world history, basic GK is stuff that makes you 'too serious'. Its annoying that people think being good at trivia is unnecessary and all you need to do is put a point across. No, you don't, not backed with your baseless opinion. But isn't that relative? Sure it is,but what matters is what you back your opinion up with, and how powerfully, and more importantly, convincingly its done!
There are things that people strive to be, and perfect, is one of them. I'm not one to even try. I know I'm flawed and accepting it is the best thing that I've done, besides marrying the girl I did, that is! More than accepting it, embracing it is what put into perspective, the things that make me flawed..and enjoy the fact that I don't celebrate being perfect or being in the pursuit of it.
One thing I don't like is people making a big deal of money. I don't mean BIG deal of money, I mean big deal of MONEY. People splitting bills down to the paisa, just so its 'fair and balanced'. Balanced? In the emperical sense, maybe, but fair? What's fair? I think its fair to've played an innings to the match's requirements as against playing an innings because you had no other choice. For example, the knock that Atherton played against SA in the '90s that saved the test and won the English the series.
But, I deviate, the point I'm trying to make is that money's something that one can never be sure of and the ritualists of the world try and make money as constant as is possible. Lets not forget how it all started. Besides, there are some things that cannot be counted. Like experience, or intensity.
Going back to opinions. What I've learnt and seen is that the stronger and more passionately you feel about an issue and the more articulate you are, your opinions end up sounding much more convincing than others. So its good to be opinionated, in my humble opinion. I've seen that I'm more receptive to actively resilient, determined and logical points of view than ones backed by newspaper and internet articles(for the 'widely read'), or just popular public opinion. Lets just say I'm not easily influenced.
But I've seen far too many and far too often, people who get inflenced by opinions of powerful personalities or by general consensus. The question is, what do they think about when they're taking a shit? Or when they're on a bus staring at open scenery and listening to random music that's either played on the bus, or ended up playing on their music players-ones that've never come up, cos shuffle has an annoying knack of playing the same songs and omitting the others over n over again.
I've found that learning is more and richer when it comes through a different and forceful,passionate medium. I have to confess that I put my case forward with more confidence than back-up, very often and it encourages really stimulating debate and information exchange.
I spoke to a few of my closest friends and they came to a unanimous conclusion- Opinions are always welcome. Only, there should be passion and information behind them.
Unopinionated people-Let's define them, for starters.
1. Unopinionated people or, for the comfort of the crowd in question, people who 'like to listen and take everything in' generally tend to stay quiet in discussions, often, not contributing to the information exchange.
2. They usually end up agreeing with one party or the other, not necessarily taking sides, but backing one of the many points of view that are in discussion, like that's their point of view as well.
Which it very well might be. All I'm saying is why didn't they think of it first, or if they did, why didn't they bring it to the table?
Being opinionated doesn't mean wanting to be right always, or being stubborn about it. It means that you have an opinion that you have built, using the information available to you and passing it through the circuitry that's made you what you are.
Being the 'taking in the conversations'kind could be because of many reasons within and out of their control. They could be shy, inhibited, intimidated by other personalities, not know how to express exactly what they're feeling, not have the knowledge to contribute or have an opinion or just plain not care about.
If you're the kind that doesn't care,then that is an opinion, too..unless you don't care about anything..
All I want to convey to the readers of this post is to spend a little time thinking about issues that matter to you. Irrespective of how trivial or useless other people might term them, these matters are yours to think about and have an opinion on.
I don't know if I'm coming across the way I want to, but I know people who want to understand, will.
Of course, that's only my opinion.
