Quotation of the Week - On Public Opinion

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter" - from that fountainhead of all wisdom Dr Seuss.

But seriously, it is a very human tendency to worry about how other people view you. This is unsurprising seeing that human beings, by their very nature are social animals, and human interaction form the basis of our lives, be they with family, friends or acquaitances. However, it is very easy to fall into the trap of taking public opinion too seriously, to the detriment of what we individually think is right, to constantly worry about how we are perceived in the public eye. There is a negative tendency today equate what is right as what the majority of people believe.

This is borne out most of all by the politics of today, as Fareed Zakaria has pointed out succintly in his book the Future of Freedom. Politicians seem to care endlessly about opinion polls and public perception. In such an environment it becomes increasingly impossible for a politician to do what is right rather than what is publicly acceptable, a dangerous trend if there ever was one.

We should perhaps take the example of the first and greatest of all philosophers, Socrates, who was always quick to point out the inadequacy of public opinion as a guide to what is right or wrong. For him being a philosopher was a search for truth, with truth being something that was logically consistent, not merely commonly accepted. As he said in his trial - you may condemn me but I will still speak what I think to be the truth each time even if you were to kill me a hundred times. Speaking of living up to one's beliefs, Socrates of course famously did so to the largest possible degree in drinking the hemlock and dying as a result.

So, we should live for what we believe in, and ultimately the people we care about, the people whom we care for are those who will be able to accept us for what we are.