Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [18]
However, consider this very different use of the term. A newspaper reports that the Supreme Court has delivered its opinion in a controversial case. Obviously the justices did not state their personal preferences, their mere likes and dislikes. They stated their considered judgment, painstakingly arrived at after thorough inquiry and deliberation.
Most of what is referred to as opinion falls somewhere between these two extremes. It is not an expression of taste. Nor is it careful judgment. Yet it may contain elements of both. It is a view or belief more or less casually arrived at, with or without examination of the evidence.
Is everyone entitled to his or her opinion? In a few country this is not only permitted but guaranteed. In Great Britain, for example, there is still a Flat Earth Society. As the name implies, the members of this organization believe that the earth is not spherical but flat. In this country, too, each of us is free to take as bizarre a position as we please about any matter we choose. When the telephone operator announces, "That'll be ninety-five cents for the first three minutes," you may respond, "No, it won't – it'll be twenty-eight cents." When the service station attendant notifies you, "Your oil is down a quart," you may reply, "Wrong – it's up three."
Being free to hold an opinion and express it does not, of course guarantee favorable consequences. The operator may hang up on you. The service station attendant may threaten you with violence.
Acting on our opinions carries even less assurance. Consider the case of the California couple who took their eleven-year-old diabetic son to a faith healer. Secure in their opinion that the man had cured the boy, they threw away his insulin. Three days later the boy died. They remained unshaken in their belief, expressing the opinion that God would raise the boy from the dead. The police arrested them, charging them with manslaughter.1 The law in such matters is both clear and reasonable. We are free to act on our opinions only so long as, in doing so, we do not harm others.
OPINIONS CAN BE MISTAKEN
It is tempting to conclude that, if we are free to believe something, it must have some validity. That, however, is not the case. Free societies are based on the wise observation that people have an inalienable right to think their own thoughts and make their own choices. But this fact in no way suggests that the thoughts they think and the choices they make will be reasonable.
Evidence that opinions can be mistaken is all around us. The weekend drinker often has the opinion that as long as he doesn't drink during the week, he is not an alcoholic. The person who continues driving with the oil light flashing on the dashboard may have the opinion that the problem being signaled can wait until next month's service appointment. The student who quits school at age sixteen may have the opinion that an early entry into the job market ultimately improves job security. Yet however deeply and sincerely such opinions are held, the are wrong.
Research shows that people can be mistaken even when they are making a special effort to judge objectively. Sometimes their errors are caused by considerations to subtle they are unaware of them. For example, before Taster's Choice coffee was introduced, it was tested and sampled with three different labels – brown, yellow, and red. People who sampled the coffee in the container with the brown label reported that it was too strong and kept them awake at night. People who sampled the yellow-labeled coffee found it weak and watery. Those who sampled the red-labeled coffee judged it just the right strength