As an example: If I brought home an apple
from the store, it would be my opinion that if I cut the apple in two pieces
there would be seeds in the apple. The
certain facts that are true would be that I have bought apples from the store
before and when I cut them in two there are seeds inside the apple. Therefore, I can reasonably believe that the
same would be true in the example that I posed to you at the beginning of the
paragraph.
However, my example would fall short of an
absolute conviction or certainty in this case until I actually sliced the apple
in two and discovered the results of my opinion. However, some people will want to conclude
with a certainty that since it has ALWAYS been the case in the past it
will ALWAYS be the case any time that the opinion is made. That however is not always the case!
Why do you think that legally some
companies or firms who are involved in speculative operations have to put a
disclaimer on their ads? Consider the legal
profession. Some attorney may include
within his or her advertising that they get their clients an average of $75,000
per case. But, somewhere within the ad
you will a statement such as “past performance does not guarantee future
results.” Why do they have to say
that? Because in their opinion they should
be able to do that since they have been fairly consistent in being able to do it
in the past for their clients. However,
until your case is handled, they are only assuming that the results will be
similar.
It is also true that the “opinion question”
is the easiest to answer because everyone has an opinion and whatever a person
should say could not be considered right or wrong because it is only their
opinion. It is also one of the most
difficult questions to ask because of the same reasons. There is no right or wrong answer so a person
can say pretty much whatever they would like to say and not be wrong.
We would also have to remember that an
opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather
than facts which are true statements.
That means that a person really needs no factual content upon which to
base their opinion because they will never have to “back it up” with solid
content.
Therefore, in certain situations,
particularly within the legal and political arenas you will constantly hear
comments made by being prefaced with the phrase “In my opinion.” I recall once sitting in a courtroom and the plaintiff’s
attorney approached the witness and said: “So, in your opinion, do you think
the defendant is capable of committing this crime?” Boy, is that a loaded question or what? I sat there thinking anybody would probably
be capable of committing a crime, so why not this person? The attorney’s only objective was to plant in
the minds of the jury that the defendant COULD have committed the crime
even if he MAY NOT have committed the crime!
You will also find that a person’s opinion
will have a lot to do with their background, their education, their position in
life, their economic standing, their moral upbringing, and even their religious
views. When all of these things play together
and someone or some group is perhaps applying pressure for you to lean in a
certain direction, we can understand how in some cases your opinion may not
actually be YOUR opinion, but the opinion of others that has been assimilated
into your psyche. The reason that this
can be done is because we’re only human!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
"We cannot be the person
formed by public opinion."
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