'You can twist perceptions, reality won't budge.'

I don’t mean to go all postmodern on you, but I’ve been mulling over something for a while now and I think I’ve reached a conclusion that would save everyone and their dog a lot of arguments. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

All opinions and interpretations are meaningless to everyone except the people who hold them. You can no more convince someone else that your view is right than you can change what colour socks you wore yesterday. Trying to bring another person around to your point of view at the expense of their own is an act of immense egotism and an exercise in utter futility. What do you really achieve by persuading someone to agree with you? Unless your grasp on your beloved convictions is so fragile that you feel the need to recruit an army of like-minded drones, then the victory is hollow at best. If you have absolute faith in the opinions you espouse, then the support of others shouldn’t even be necessary. Live as you like, believe as you wish and give everyone else the chance to do the same. 

In all the online communities I’ve been involved in over the years, not to mention that curious beast we call 'real life', I’ve noticed a trend for debates to rage back and forth for years at a time. Nine times out of ten they lead nowhere except round in circles, and succeed only in straining relations between people who might once have been good friends. When all’s said and done, the one thing people tend to forget is how little these differences matter. 

Every choice we make is based on our unique experience. The key word here is 'unique'.  I have no right to impose my opinion on someone else’s decisions because my choices are a product of very different experiences, which may or may not have influenced me in another direction. Whatever I decide or believe is entirely up to me, just as whatever you decide or believe is entirely up to you. Our paths may cross on the journey through life, but there’s no reason for our swords to follow suit if we happen to disagree.

Opinion by its very nature is subjective. More often than not it’s fuelled by gut reactions, which are set in stone the moment we feel them. There can be no such thing as a truly unbiased view, as good an idea as that might sound, because everyone sees things from their own distinct perspective and it’s never quite possible to remove the blinkers. From this we get the very human and very destructive habit of talking over the top of each other and thinking in terms of 'right' and 'wrong' instead of getting on with the daily business of living as we see fit.

The opinions expressed within this post are my own and do not represent those of anyone with better things to do than take up space with empty rhetoric.