Senior English major
After my screaming “Oh” column ran Monday, I got an angry email slamming the piece for its prideful Maryland arrogance. I know not everyone screams “Oh” during the national anthem, and many who don’t simply find it distasteful. So I wasn’t surprised by the email.
Despite my lack of surprise, the email still made my head hurt — it was the proverbial opinion straw that broke the fed-up-with-people’s-opinions camel’s back.
I understand there are two types of opinions: valid and timely (provides us with progress and insightful conversations) and forced and arrogant (annoy us the rest of the time). I also understand, as an opinion columnist, there is a hefty bit of irony in a rant about this particular topic, but I’m going to do it anyway.
In May, I will be graduating from this fine university along with thousands of other students. I’ll be handed a diploma, patted on the back and sent merrily on my way, probably only asked to come back for money or if I become famous. Despite my GPA, credits and extracurriculars (this column is pretty much it), all I will have to show for this “accomplishment” is a piece of paper millions of other college seniors will get as well.
Graduating college used to be a big moment in a young man or woman’s life; now, it feels like the market is oversaturated with the dumb, grown-up versions of the kids who played in the Little Leagues in which everyone got a trophy.
Somewhere in the span of human existence, opinions shed their protective humble coating and entered into the realm of misplaced egos and entitlement. (A diploma no doubt added to this phenomenon.) It’s a scary proposition that everyone has an opinion — because if everyone has an opinion, everyone is so busy constantly competing with one another about who’s right and who’s wrong that nobody sits back and thinks about how little they actually know.
Whoever came up with the phrase “I’m entitled to my opinion” must not have realized the ticking time bomb he or she released on humanity and the scariness of the free reign of one’s own opinion.
If you don’t believe me, scroll through the comments on Fox News, CNN, ESPN or even The Diamondback’s websites to see how nasty, or at the very least, condescending, humans can be to one another under the veil of anonymity. The Internet is basically the amalgamation of ignorant opinions, and all it seems to have given us is death threats to field goal kickers who miss big kicks and racist or homophobic garbage underneath any remotely political article. And the worst part is, the best we can do now is “agree to disagree,” which only means your ego and my ego are choosing pride over progress.
Enough with the opinions. Here is a fact. About every second, three babies are born to one person dying. That’s three new arrogant little babies’ opinions to every one withered, ignorant dead opinion going away, netting two brand-spanking-new, stupid opinions every second. That means in one minute alone, 180 people will enter this world who think about the same proudful dumb things as you and me.
Imagine you’re driving and every minute, 180 cars magically show up in front of you, cut you off, start honking their horns and do their best to impede you from where you’re trying to go. How long would you even last on the road before you jerked the steering wheel and aimed for the nearest tree?
On second thought, don’t answer that. Perhaps the opinion forced on a nonlistening ear has the same fate of the tree that falls in the forest with nobody around to hear it. Does it make a sound?
No one cares.
Drew Farrell is a senior English major. He can be reached at dfarrell@terpmail.umd.edu.
