There comes a moment in rarely any person's life when they realize how little their opinions really matter and they decide to shut up.
Now I don't know anybody who has come to realize this fact yet. And even though I pretend in front of myself that I've finally reached that degree of wisdom and peace with myself and the world, that I've risen above all the foolish fever of having an opinion that I would cry my heart out to prove right on matters which are beyond the scoop of my full understanding, just at that glorious moment while I congratulate myself for being smart enough to understand that nobody cares what my opinion is on the constitution or the constituent assembly or the strikes, just at that moment, somebody says something that suddenly doesn't seem right to me, and before I can stop myself I blurt out my objection, and the next thing I'm right in the middle of an idle debate muttering to myself that I'm not really as smart as I thought I was. What on earth did I ever learn of politics or law to be able to form a correct opinion on such a matter? On what basis other than my natural human ignorant arrogance did I consider my opinion right enough to defend it? Then I think that I needn't be that hard on myself, it is just human nature, I should take it easy on my already mortified self anyway.... etc.
It's not an easy matter though to speak of only what you know, an impossible errand if you come to think of it. We are set to automatically try to figure out where we stand from any debated matter that we hear of, without necessarily asking ourselves why we chose that particular side. Things just "seem" right to us in that certain way. Why remain silent and bored when I can always spend hours fully entertained discussing with full conviction things that I know nothing of? It's the time of revolution and we all have a right to speak up our ill informed uneducated minds. After all if we really do think before we speak, hardly anybody would speak at all, let alone if we speak only of matters that we properly understand, and truly few are the things of which one can say "I properly understand" with a clear conscience.
The right to remain silent. How little appreciated, how little fought for it when compared to all other rights which are meant to preserve the dignity of a human being and protect him from looking completely foolish among his other fellow humans.
That could be a relatively harmless human nature if it hasn't been for the critical times. Times when already the air is fully charged with tension and one word is enough to set everything and everyone on fire. History has always been made this way. A fool with marvelous powers of oration speaks (a power which makes a fool particularly dangerous), and happens to speak of something that deeply touches people's life at a time that happens to be a critical time, what he says "seems" right to the audience and a mass movement is on the move. The right fool at the right time, that's all what it takes.
It's amusing though how the exact opposite is true. When it comes to matters of taste when there are no rules and we have a certain right to have an opinion based on just the appeal of things to us, we usually prefer to shut up. You are reading a book, a poem, or hearing some music, or looking at a painting that is widely regarded by people of sense, culture, taste and education as a master piece. The problem with these people is that their opinions are regarded as a sacred law that only a simpleton would dare disagree with. You are sincerely turning "the master piece" upside down trying to find out what is so mind blowing about it but you can't help seeing it as meaningless or stupid or artless. But do you have the courage to declare your humble opinion against theirs, even to yourself? In this case you'd think they must know better. The majority of people will probably end up questioning the validity of their own opinion and quit their views to adopt the views of "those who know better".
How to tell if you have a credible opinion or not on any given subject? No one but you can really know. So pray for the wisdom to know, and the power to control yourself when you know you don't know!
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