Reflections on Communicating Opinions
#thought provoking
Today, I suddenly had a thought I’d like to write down. The topic is “What makes communicating opinions good or not.” It’s simple. I see this topic as one that revolves around whether we lean towards a relationship of domination and submission.
For example, I think it’s good to share an individual’s opinion with an unspecified group of people via text. (Here, "sharing" does not mean "telling.") Perhaps this is why platforms like Twitter became so popular. It’s similar to how celebrities or influencers openly express their opinions, and it gets retweeted or commented on by many people.
This phenomenon shows how an individual, by not forcing their message, throws out a subject to the masses, leaving the people who wish to participate in the discussion or support the opinion to do so voluntarily, in a natural and free way.
On the other hand, if someone were to say to a specific individual, “A is A. So don’t think of A as B from now on,” most people would interpret this as someone trying to take away that specific person’s freedom to think. Even if the intention is good. This is true even if the words are spoken in a kind tone.
However, when an individual’s opinion is communicated to an unspecified group, a space for discussion “opens up.” (Again, it should be communication, not notification.) Open. This part is important.
Both the receiver and the sender of the message must leave enough room to freely communicate their opinions to each other for a conversation to happen. If that doesn’t happen, then it would just be an order or notification. This is the typical communication pattern seen in relationships of domination and submission. It’s like how, in the past, the state would notify young men of a specific age to enlist in the military.
In conclusion, there is no freedom in relationships of domination and submission. It’s simply a relationship between those who dominate and those who are dominated. Those who seek to dominate will attempt to infringe upon the freedom of those they wish to control. Conversely, those who are dominated voluntarily surrender their freedom to the one in power.
I believe that in order to avoid these patterns, conversations should be conducted in a way that allows for high-level, open dialogue between individuals.