Recently, a 71 year old pensioner from Kent in England, was arrested, handcuffed and cautioned, after posting a message on the social media platform X which was judged offensive. According to reports, his home was searched and his electronic devices confiscated.[i] It was alleged that the man had contravened the Malicious Communications Act (1988) in the UK; whereby it is illegal to send any communications, electronic or otherwise with the intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient[ii].

Everyone has an opinion; but, do we need to know of them? There was a time, before the advent of social media platforms, when the majority of our opinions were only known to a few people within our circle of family, friends and perhaps a few colleagues, if at all. There was also the unspoken, but widely acknowledged civility rule, that to be too opinionated was socially and culturally inappropriate. Often, the judgement about a person who was overly belligerent, fixated or uncompromising on controversial subjects like politics, sex and religion, was that they were too opinionated. The widely held, yet unspoken view was that they ought to keep their opinions to themselves.

Today, the civility rule have been tossed out and made redundant; because, social media platforms have enabled anyone and everyone, anywhere, to express an opinion on anything at all; whether or not the foundational point of view is a rational, informed understanding of the topic, issue or event.

So, do opinions matter?  Opinions are generalizations founded upon judgements, and made without a lot of evidence. The source of collective opinions generally about subjects like social, cultural, artistic, political, religious and economic issues, often arise out of a kind of collective consciousness. A broad consensus emerges and is held, until it is examined more closely through argument and analysis. It is either accepted or rejected by the collective, and becomes permanent knowledge until further evidence and argument overturn its previously held maxim[iii]. This applies generally across open societies, and in particular to ethical and legal opinions, which are often enacted by democratic governments to ensure the protection of everyone. So, in this context opinions matter

Individual opinion, on the other hand, is more muddled and chaotic. They seem to appear out of one’s imagination. Bytes of information, mostly unsubstantiated, and absent of facts, often become a person’s truism. Examples include hate speech, and extreme, fanatical views on the issues of the day. While some opinions remain private to the individual, others are jettisoned into the digital netherworld, without a thought of the consequences. These opinions quickly become group think, and suddenly a herd mentality and digital mob rule takes over. The result can be tens of thousands of opinionated people marching in our capital cities, for a cause of which they have little, if any known historical and accurate knowledge.

Individual, subjective and uninformed opinion should matter too; because it highlights an urgent need to address critical thinking, and reasoning skills in our school curricula.

A global survey conducted by the Times Educational Supplement found that the majority of teachers (93%) agreed that critical thinking skills ought to be an essential part of a school’s curriculum; but only 21% said they had the requisite materials to do so. Moreover, only 17% said they’d had sufficient in house training to teach critical thinking skills, and 50% said that it would be difficult to find the time to do so[iv]. It is a truism that schools teach the way culture itself teaches, and what they do not teach in our schools is as important as what they do teach[v].

Opinions do matter; and, although we all might get “as mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore” as Howard Beale exclaims in the 1976 classic film, Network; do we really need to let everyone know about it?

[i] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j718we6njo

[ii] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/27/section/1

[iii] Kulke, E, On the History and Development of Opinions

[iv] https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2019/03/07/critical-thinking-survey-results/

[v] Eisner, E.W, the Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs.