For the majority of the time that I was at university I found the idea of having a considered opinion as being extremely old fashioned and entirely out of synch with the post-modern fluctuations in ways of approaching research, epistemology and other issue areas that I struggled to understand. There may of course only be this level of understanding this term however, I would speculate that there are what may in effect be class based divisions in how the term can be viewed. It did seem like a particularly Victorian and gentlemanly means of a describing a relatively good quality opinion, a view of high status that was arrived at through sensible and reasonable consideration of factual information in the light of a contemporary situation. A considered opinion should perhaps reflect all information relevant to the opinion after someone has had opportunity to digest that information. This information should perhaps be researched and critiqued by the person who expresses the opinion. It may also be something that a graduate of any degree should aim to have on any view that they express – that they will have given adequate consideration to all matters that they are willing to state an opinion on. I find it rather difficult to imagine that this does take place because I imagine graduates tend to slowly absorb information after a degree and may enjoy or find greater pleasure in well researched, written and targeted texts but not necessarily research their views with a semi-religious conviction.
I have aimed at understanding some current affairs issue areas to a respectable standard and not found it straightforward to do this. I have say for instance aimed at developing an understanding of conflict ridden areas, such as the middle-east and Northern Ireland. It is not difficult to get a few books on each area, say reviewing the last fifty years history and key characters and movements which are affecting each area, and to read through these. However, what I have found rather difficult is just getting on with this. Academia is not the leisure activity that I think it possibly should be in some respects. Maybe I should not feel any grief dissatisfaction or upset when reading about the atrocities of the British government but after studying the information then express and feel some form of shame. It’s certainly not something that should disrupt the reading that I do and I shouldn’t feel that any response during reading is anything other than likely to interrupt the process of forming the said opinion. This I appreciate may sound like a very juvenile view to state but because it does I don’t think that it is frequently expressed.
It does also strike me that there is going to be some means to other levels to the considered opinion and that there are likely to be matters that can not be divulged publicly that may have some bearing on what can be expressed in an opinion – that someone gentlemanly – not that this restricts women in any way at present - and senior in society may not be able to divulge information on some particular form of corruption, however, what someone may be aware of could be incorporated into their opinions. Maybe a considered opinion was a means of gaining guidance without needing to be aware of the unpleasantness of the world that those up top may be aware of and to benefit from their guidance. This is what I assume religions aim to propagate through a universal doctrine of morality which has been generated by some of the most corrupt people that the world has known…A little jaundiced I think.
1 comment:
A considered opinion tends to lack 'flashiness'. by that i mean few people will appreciate a well rounded statement that lists both sides of the argument because it just isn't exciting enough. in a social context people tend to levitate towards the opinionated or shocking, after all they make for good entertainment, someone with a balanced view really has to present it in some caricutured act of indignation in order to get peoples attention.
...and to make the jaundice a little less yellow my religeon of choice spent a considerable amount of time as a persecuted fraternity ostricised from the wider populace. it was during this time that the key ideas of morality were adopted from the teachings of the original author and therefore had no social engineering benefit to them either microscopically or macroscopically. i believe that most religeons start small and have a doctrine of morality in place long before that morality can be used by the power-brokers to illicit some form of mass conformity. the separation of religeon and state is to the benefit of religeon as power attracts the impious, the catholic church had that problem for a long time, the reformation being precipitated by such impiety.
nice length of article though.
keith
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