ARE WE JUDGING WHEN HAVING OPINIONS?

Last night I was walking with my dad. Everybody had been surprised at his reaction a few days ago when my sister called to announce she was getting married. He actually seemed happy! And we, the rest of the family, were expecting a complete different reaction. Last night we went out to walk the dogs. It was the two of us so I just asked him what his real opinion was, because none of us in the close family could really believe he was just OK with the news.

My mom had an opinion (you know how moms are when their first child gets married… she is just endlessly happy). My brother has an opinion, probably a similar opinion to the one I have (let’s just say we are quite skeptical)… but my dad… My sister is (between her and myself) his “little girl” and his “little girl” is getting married. He must have an opinion! (I thought). His answer was: I don’t have an opinion; I don’t want to have an opinion. If you make yourself an opinion of something or somebody you are implying a comparison. You need a standard; a control, something to compare with, and I don’t want to do this. I could compare his values to my values and if they are different I probably will have a bad opinion of him, but that is not right because everyone is different. Furthermore, what is important is that regardless of my opinion if the marriage works well, and she is happy, everything will be good. But what if I have a good opinion about him and the marriage at the end turns wrong? That will not only hurt her, but also me because I care about her. If I wouldn’t care that much I wouldn’t have problems on having an opinion about him.”

I am a person who believes in first impressions, hence I almost always have an opinion and if asked I’ll tell them without hesitation. However yesterday for the first time I thought: is it really important to have an opinion on everything? Maybe not, but then I thought: I don’t really have an opinion on everything. Curiously enough I have opinions usually on things I care about (in a good or in a bad way). They were important enough for me to give them a thought… so how can you not have an opinion about things you care but have one on things you do not care? I believe the fact that I gave some thought to something means I should have an opinion about it. Should I not?

by Outlier

The Human Kingdom

Without any intention of getting involved in discussions about religion (for those who believe that human are not animals; I respect your position) I was wondering…

In biology, specifically in animals with sexual dimorphism*, when we talk about sexual selection we often (if not always) turn our attention to males and the “things” that make them attractive to females. Put it this way: who have the big ornamentations, or the brightest colors, or the best song repertoires (in many songbirds for example), etc. Right answer: males. They have to show-off in front of females, show that they carry the best genes, are the healthiest in the group and will be the best “papas” for this current breeding period. Females… we chose.

*males look clearly different than females

Ok, so far so good for animal kingdom. But then, humans are animals. I mean we belong to the animal kingdom, and we certainly have sexual dimorphism. So why is it that in humans, females are the ones using make-up, dressing up… blah blah blah? Are we, women showing-off for men?

I’m curious to know what you think about it.

[by Outlier]