The Shape of Opinions

Sometimes the shape of an opinion is made clear by communication - clear, concise, even imaginative. A lot of the time, though, the shape of opinions and thoughts only come back with the echoes or lack of them.

When blindfolded, you can shout at a wall and know that you are shouting at a wall by the sound that comes back. You might even be able to tell what sort of wall it is - brick, wood, or a combination. If you know a person is there, and you talk to the person and they do not respond - they are probably either not paying attention to you; they are ignoring you.

Things happen when people are ignored. Those that are ignored believe that the silence is an opinion, and they are not wrong. Whatever is happening may be more important than what one is saying; they may be working out how to solve world peace or something like that while you're trying to tell them that they have a green piece of cheese on their neck.

The green piece of cheese doesn't bother them, so they ignore you. In fact, they may have placed the green piece of cheese on their neck in some sacred rite early this morning involving green goats and green goat milk. Maybe they are waiting for their friend with an olive to show up so that they can hang out together, one never knows.

But when you're blindfolded, you don't see the green piece of cheese. You don't see the person. You don't know that they are there. So you talk. You try to catch the attention of the person who is supposed to be there, saying "Hey You!" or something like that. You express your opinion, perhaps that dingos taste good with sweet relish. It doesn't matter. Maybe they are standing there and they think you are crazy for enjoying the meat of dingos, or more likely they think you are crazy for enjoying sweet relish. Most likely, they think you're crazy for the combination of the two.

But when you try to communicate reasonably, and people choose to ignore you - you know that they are there - you learn about who they are by what they do not respond to. You learn what sort of person that they are by the lack of sound; you learn that they are not interested in what you are saying - whatever it is. You could continue talking at them; you could try to shout and scream and perhaps fling things at them like a monkey at the zoo. It might even make you feel better.

At the end of the day, you learn more about society and people by watching what they don't talk about, or what they disparage. You learn what they consider to be some form of taboo to discuss for them, where even calling it taboo is taboo. What you have found is a limitation in communication - a defining point in a relationship; any relationship.

Silence is a powerful thing. It can make small things look large, it can make large things look small. At the whim of people who control media - even new media, such as weblogs - you learn a lot about what society will talk about and what they are afraid to talk about. Their fears, their concerns, and the things that they wear blinders to avoid.

The sad part is that most of the time, people seem to be walking sideways with their head straight ahead, blinders on, and headed straight for a heap of elephant manure that they're going to toss all over the place when they hit at the rate which they are going. They respond in silence, eyes fixed ahead as they move sideways, and if you're smart - you run the other way so you don't smell like digested elephant food that's been hanging out in a fecid intestine too long.

Watch out. Elephant Poop. Film at 11, from a safe distance. That's what you're supposed to do. But some people climb on the elephant poop in some hope that being higher will help people see them (when they have blinders on and are looking perpendicularly somewhere else). They sink into the elephant poop and smell like it.

What a weird dance we have as humans. The shape of an opinion ends up being affected whether we stand in the elephant poop or not. Isn't that amusing...