An opinion is meaningless and yet, the bearers of opinions hope or demand that their words carry the weight of the world for those who hear them. I have often said in conversation that I do not understand why someone would think that their opinions should carry that much weight but in fact I think I might...
No one's opinion should matter more to me than my own and my opinions should not matter to another more than his or her opinions do. I understand why, in academic writing, one must state all opinions as fact, but in daily conversation, one really shouldn't go around spouting their opinions like water burbling from the Fountain of Youth or like the message of a god passing through a prophet.
I believe I understand why people think this way--it is because of ego. I am not referring to Freud's concept of the ego, but rather the concept that one is more important or correct or more worldly or more knowledgeable than those around him or her. Granted I possess a slice of this kind of ego and I hope that my writing will be read and loved by people in the future, but I try to constantly remember that my opinions do not or should not hold all the merit in the world for the people who hear them. Others might do well to try remembering the same.
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