UnPoPuLaR OpiNiOnS

Unpopular Opinions

These things called opinions. Those little finicky things that seem to radiate from our mouths like microwaves and plant themselves in social situations both fulfilling and awkward. Are we even really conscious about our own opinions? Do we identify with our opinions so much that it becomes the CORE of our own identity? We may hold similar opinions and contrasting opinions. Some of our opinions develop the friendships and social circles we inhabit. Do you ever think about that?

We get pretty picky with our opinions? We let some out like and anxious cat and hold others in in order to protect our own self image. How silly. We wouldn’t want to upset someone or have the “wrong” opinion now, would we? These opinions are driven by thought. Thought driven by experience and memory. Whether we like it or not, we are conditioned by the past and the environment we have lived in. It sculpts the way we see the world. Most of it is in our programming. You know. This subconscious concept we so like to spat about at bars and dinner parties. It runs below your general awareness and influences your distorted perception. The distorted lens of the past. It builds your sense of self, which is a product of time. This sense of self that thrives off thought and is driven towards security and pleasure. The desire of the me. The desire to define yourself by the past and your opinions.

Are they your opinions? Do you own them? Where do they come from? Well, your conditioning and level of awareness of course. When you say “my opinion”, you are identifying with thought. You are operating under a mechanism of division. Division that comes from the sense of self, mind, and the “I”. Identifying with your opinions is an act of unconsciousness. It is an act of past experience. It is putting up walls and creating a sense of self that is limited from the past. “Your” mind creates an image from your conditioning. Your programming. Get it? From that image comes conflict and division.

What happens when we simply watch these opinions and don’t identify with them?
How much of “our opinions” are just based on imitating other people’s opinions?

You like and dislike, but what does it mean? You have your own bias. Your bias is showing. Your conditioning is revealing. You are projecting your own ideals. You are separating yourself from what is through thought. Through the lens of distortion. Through the lens of the past....which is dead.

When you observe and not try to lustfully grab or vehemently push away what you oppose, you allow for a new sense of space. This sense of space is not tied to thought, your conditioning, or the sneaky serpent of the past.

What happens when your opinion is unpopular?
When your opinion doesn’t match the status quo.
When your opinion is so against the grain of what society is comprised of.
Do you hold it in? Do you keep it to yourself?

God forbid people not like your unpopular opinion. Do you curtail your opinions to appease the others around you? You must fear isolation, no? You must fear losing some of your friends or your status?

“Popular opinions are a stagnant pond that invites the mosquitoes of dullness and mediocrity.”

Our minds seek security through thought and opinions. Some of the opinions that we consider our “own” are most likely regurgitated from people that we admire or even trust. We like “their” opinions so much that we bring it into our own sense of self. We mimic the behavior we want the most for ourselves. This mimicry of behavior feeds the “me”. It feeds the desire mechanism in our brain. That desire mechanism is programmed to get away from “what is” and go towards “ What should be” or what we “think” we should be. It sculpts our world view and creates conflict within ourselves. It fragments the illusory sense of self.

I mean how much of our meaty identity is compromised of what we think of the world around us and ourselves? Do we ever investigate that without trying to find a quick answer or a solution? Do we ever take the time to step back and watch the mind without trying control it or pick and choose what musical playlist we want to listen to on Spotify?

Our identification with opinion makes us mechanical and dull. We corner ourselves in our own comfortable biased blanket fort and try so hard not to break our routines. We like what we like and don’t like what we don’t like. We don’t question it. We let be suit we want to wear and parade it out when we are out in public. I mean isn’t it precious? Your opinion? What makes YOU want to HOLD onto your opinion so much? After all, you have your own opinions and your friend or significant other has his or her own opinions. Big deal, right?

These opinions are a rejection, ( a form of resistance )
An effort or violent will brought about through thought and fragmentation,
We can put up our own fences and walls.
We can create conflict by trying to choose what we like and dislike.
We can reject what is,
We can decorate our own smelly echo chambers.

We see it in the feed. The constant barrage of opinions in CyBeR SpAcE! People posting things they don’t even think about before hand. How interesting! What is pulling their strings? What forces within them are making them be so opinionated? Making them be so divisive and ideological?

Is your worldview better than my worldview?
Well how SMUG of you!

How amazing thought is. How amazing we seem to get trapped in it like a fly in a spider web! Most people are in a psychosis of thought. They don’t even know it! How bizarre. How macabre. How beautiful?

Your opinions ain’t you. I can assure you. Am I wrong? What’s your opinion on this matter in 141 characters or less? But what are you? Are you actually you? Do you have an opinion on this? Well, do you? If you do, then why? Don’t you see that you are missing the point? Don’t you see the beautiful contradiction? The beautiful distraction? Can you see that tree over there without trying to name it? Without trying to see if it is beautiful or not? Without trying to compare it with the other trees around it?

Just a thought....but is it just a thought?

Does that thought exist? When you are looking at that Camry, can you see the car for what it is and not be reminded of that time you sat in the back of your uncle’s camry when you were 6 and threw up all over the backseat because you drank a slurpee too fast? You see your conditioning now don’t you?

Oh, here comes another thought. Do you see it? Does your mind create images of that thought? Just look! No need to conceptualize or theorize. How silly!

So, what is your opinion on opinions now?



DG