A MATTER OF OPINION

A MATTER OF OPINION

This is not a post about catholicism but I need to reference some catholic-related stuff to introduce a point.

When I was a little kid, I had to go to church every Sunday for mass. Nothing unusual with that…….. many catholics did it. Over the following decades, I’ve given the practice up but even that’s not pertinent here.

I do remember one specific Sunday mass and I’m guessing it would have been around 1963. The reason for this impressive recall of an event from almost 55 years ago lies in what the priest did during that mass. He was the parish priest and, as such, he had attracted the official title of a monsignor. And the monsignor ALWAYS celebrated the 6p.m. Sunday mass at the parish.

Anyway, this priest was old and often cranky. But for some reason on the night of that 1963 mass, he really ‘lost it’ during the sermon. After starting off by delivering a routine monologue on the true meaning of the themes presented in the week’s gospel reading, the monsignor suddenly went down a mental railroad siding and commenced a bizarre attack on the morality of a popular TV show of that time……..The Untouchables. According to the reverend, the series was made by ‘bloody bastards’ and anyone who watched it from the congregation was a ‘bloody bastard’ too. It’s worth noting that there was no holding back, in terms of volume, from the old priest during this holy exposition.

Now I’m pretty sure that even Al Capone would have been shaking in his two-tone loafers when it was time for communion about thirty minutes later given the fervour displayed during the second half of that sermon.

The reason I’m presenting this historical recount is simple. That old guy proffered an ‘opinion’. Yep, it was from a church pulpit, it was in front of a lot of people, the language was inappropriate and he probably shouldn’t have done it. But I still remember it from all those years ago because it was an opinion.

'In order to be oneself, one has to take risks, to accept that one is not perfect and to be courageous enough to say what one really thinks. Nowadays, it’s a tremendous act of bravery to be original instead of a pathetic replication of someone else. Role models are just that, and they are not necessarily someone to imitate to the letter, an image to clone or a mind to reproduce.' (Oscar Wilde)

Wilde’s quote is a beaut. It’s not strictly about ‘opinions’ but they would easily fit into a part of the sub-text. While I wouldn’t necessarily use adjectives like ‘brave’ and ‘courageous’, he does highlight the important role of saying ‘what one really thinks’.

Many argue that the line between opinion and fact is becoming more blurred and I guess the recent notions of fake and alternate news illustrate that. But opinion-giving is still really important and I reckon that there are less examples of it today than in the past. The whittling down of the journalistic ranks, current affairs shows that concentrate on ‘info-mercials’- rather than news and editorials- and the changing nature of the social media platforms all attest to this dearth of opinion.

I’d even go so far as to assert that there is a waxing hostility towards generators of opinion. ‘Opinion’ is fast becoming anything that lies outside of the popular or current corral of thought and is viewed as subversive or time-wasting or just plain old ‘negative’. “How does anyone have the time to think about and express that?’ etc etc. (Don’t laugh, I heard that comment just recently.) The implication of such views is that there are more important and compelling things to do than question the obvious.

To conclude, please don’t be too concerned. That monsignor’s tirade may have survived for fifty odd years in my mind alone. But it does show you that opinions can be significant even on an individual level.