Edit Notes are like... My days are full of opinions. They are full of my opinions, other people’s opinions, and faceless opinions; everyone, including myself, has something to say about everything and anything. Every day I passionately and emphatically share my own opinion with everyone else, and every day someone else passionately and emphatically shares his or her opinion with me. Ranting and raving is such a common occurrence (whether it be someone’s rant about something new and fresh or someone raving about the same old nothing) that I have begun to wonder how, why, and from where these illustrious opinions are being formed. All this ranting and raving and insistence on who’s right and who’s wrong has led me to question what kind of information we are all basing these passionate opinions on. Is it important to know a lot about a subject in order to have an opinion on it? I like to think that the glaringly obvious answer to this question would be a big fat NO. However, I am proved wrong on a daily basis. Thousands of people across the world have multiple opinions on varying subjects of which they have absolutely no real information. But then again, can we ever have enough information on a subject to justify forming (or fighting for) an opinion? Where can the line be drawn between knowledge-based opinions and simple chitchat and complaining? I blame it on the general laziness of our generation. Why bother to find out the facts when MTV will give you a quick summary ten to the hour every hour between Real World and Room Raiders. McDonalds serves up fast food and America Online serves up fast information. We all know headlines, bylines, and pullout quotes, but very few of us know the full story of anything. Bush puts so much money into campaign advertising because a thirty second spot during NBC’s Must See TV is about all the time our young attention spans will be able to absorb. We are satisfied with the most summarized version of everything handed to us in the least complex manner possible (TV–the more visuals the better) and just like that the thinking part of opinion forming is eliminated. Of course, not everyone is guilty of this information sluggishness. But for me, the saddest part of our lazy reality is that in a college community idleness seems to be most pertinent in the more liberal thinkers. Nostalgia for the 60’s and 70’s leaves us stagnant in our own decade. Are there just too many causes to fight? And if we are too lazy to be well informed where is this energy to be so passionately opinionated coming from? How come we can scream bloody murder when injustice flashes before our eyes in the media but can’t take the time to understand what is going on in our neighborhoods on a daily basis? There will be no fight to fight until we find the rhyme and reason behind every so-called atrocity and face it head on. Empty words are not enough. Think before you speak, and look before you leap. Jessica Goldberg, Photography Editor Generation Magazine
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