Opinions are like P2P horror stories, the saying goes. Everyone has one.
OK, so maybe that’s not quite how the saying goes, but you get the idea: What good is an opinion, especially now? Widespread access to publishing tools has rendered audiences skeptical of the clout traditionally enjoyed by legacy media institutions — especially of those run by 18- to 22-year-olds.
I am as well. So, for the purposes of maintaining my self-esteem and justifying to myself the huge amount of time and sleep I’ll be sacrificing this year, I’ve had to come up with a couple of reasons this job — and more broadly, opinions — means anything at all.
This newspaper runs on the exuberance of hopeless idealists who remain so just long enough for the next crop to take over. For better or for worse, I’m still one of them. I believe in the power of a well-researched opinion. But opinions by themselves are meaningless, regardless of who holds them.
Of course, opinions matter inasmuch as they allow us to affirm our value as humans and say: “This is my life, and this is what I think about the things within it.” The question, then, is never whether your opinion matters but how it does. Whatever divide exists in our thinking is often overshadowed by the divisions that stem from how and whether we act.
I experienced the helplessness that comes with having an opinion but few ways to make it count while living in Paris last semester.
I’d never lived in a big city before, and I definitely had a lot of thoughts — opinions, you might say — about city life and politics. But my middling French and lack of roots in the city left me feeling powerless to act on them. As much pleasure as we might derive from complaining alone, none of us want to live our entire lives passively, as tourists. It’s depressing.
The Daily Tar Heel’s opinion page is a valuable platform, but not because the people who run it are especially enlightened. Its true value is its gift of 121 years of roots, with which it has empowered students from all over to have their concerns heard and addressed.
My task is to ensure that what appears on this page eventually manifests outside of it. That means inspiring folks with specific calls to action, getting out of our proverbial armchairs and generally putting our money (though meager our paychecks might be) where our mouths are. Otherwise, we’re just a bunch of over-serious college kids with access to a printing press.
