Entry 6: Precious Opinions

   I once heard it said (or rather I read this) that only experts should have opinions. The idea behind it is people put too much value and protection on opinions and not enough emphasis on backing up their words with wisdom, facts and experience. It's true too. People who lack artistic standards (or simply cannot grasp concepts in art), people who lack knowledge about a subject or people who just think their opinion is untouchable always resort to putting a hedge of protection around themselves while in a discussion or debate and say: "Well it's my opinion." It's true, it is indeed their opinion, but in the partially recalled words of a professor of mine; we respect you and your opinion because you're another human being, but if you can't back it up we don't care. In other words, you're an idiot.

   The fact is people refuse to admit they don't know stuff. I don't mind admitting it to at all. I've not died, shrank in size or lost an arm, so there is no immediate repercussion I know of to admitting you don't know something. If I am asked my input on a topic and I feel I don't know enough about it I make sure to warn about my possible lack of knowledge first and then give my input. But the root of the problem is more than that and I feel you can find a lot of this in the arts.

   The first thing people have to do is respect other people's education, knowledge or experience in art. Unless you are educated in art yourself assume they know more than you. The second thing you have to understand is art isn't some random flailing activity either. There are rules, guidelines and a purpose to it all. Humans are nothing without art. Literally, we would be nothing without it as anything you can possibly do is influenced by it in the modern world and vastly outside the modern world too. (But this is another topic.)

   A lot of times people's mind are spoken and actually listened to when they are ignorant on a subject. This seems to be a common scenario among critics of video games as well. Often times I see a professional in one field try to evaluate video games, which is an entirely different field. If you were trying to educate yourself on the pros and cons of a medicine, would you talk to a doctor or an engineer? If you were trying to learn golf would you talk to a pro golfer or a cartoonist? Why is it when a controversy pops up in some kind of field the attention is given to the wrong side?

   In summary, people need to learn to listen more rather than use their mouth. People also need to learn to back their opinions so I'm not bombarded with 'untouchable opinions' while trying to have an intelligent conversation. I suppose the idea of only allowing experts to have opinions would be nice, that way we know mostly knowledgeable people are being heard. Overall, that wouldn't such a bad idea.