Eyiekhrote Vero
Pfutsero Town
Not only does the Constitution give us the right to have an opinion, but having our own voice is also a basic human right. Everyone has the freedom to think and express their views, even when those views are different from others.
When God created man, He gave him the free will to choose right and wrong, to express himself before the Creator and before other creatures. Man was created with a will to express himself.
We seem to be living in a time when almost everything has become offensive. When an action does not meet our expectations, we consider it offensive. Remarks, opinions, jokes, disagreements, and criticisms often quickly lead to demands for an apology. It seems that being offended has become enough reason to demand that someone take back what they have said. Disagreement is increasingly treated not simply as a difference of thought, but as something that must be corrected. People increasingly seem afraid to express their opinions for fear of offending others.
Apologies have their rightful place, and everyone should learn to apologize when they realize that what they have done is wrong. No one should defend their own wrongdoing. But when every disagreement demands an apology, something has quietly changed in the way society handles differences.
Why are we becoming so uncomfortable with criticism? Perhaps we have begun attaching our identity too closely to our opinions, groups, beliefs, or positions, so that when an opinion is criticized, we begin to feel that we ourselves are being attacked. We no longer seem to make a clear distinction between criticizing what a person believes and criticizing the person who holds that belief. As a result, disagreement becomes personal, and instead of responding to the argument, we respond defensively to the person.
We can see this clearly in politics. Politicians do not merely criticize each other's political views anymore; they often go further and criticize the people who share those views. Some take criticism so personally that they begin attacking the other person's personality, character, and even family. What began as a disagreement over ideas can quickly turn into an attack on the individual. When this becomes normal, we teach society that it is not enough to disagree with someone's opinion—we must also find something wrong with the person who holds it.
Regardless of constitutional rights, every human being has the freedom to hold and express an opinion. However, this freedom does not give us the liberty to express an opinion in a way that destroys the dignity or character of others. In other words, everyone has the right to form and express an opinion within reasonable moral and legal boundaries.
But the right to express an opinion does not mean that the opinion becomes immune from examination. Once an opinion is expressed, others have the right to question it, disagree with it, and criticize it. An opinion does not become a fact simply because someone believes it strongly, nor does expressing it place it beyond discussion. We should be able to listen to another person's criticism, consider the reasons behind it, and respond without immediately treating the person as an enemy. The right to have an opinion also gives others the right to criticize that opinion.
We must learn to distinguish between criticism and abuse. Someone can challenge what we say without disrespecting who we are. Someone can disagree with us without being hateful. Criticism can sometimes be uncomfortable, but discomfort is not necessarily harm. At times, criticism may even expose weaknesses in our thinking and give us an opportunity to reconsider what we believe. Instead of immediately demanding an apology whenever something makes us uncomfortable, we should first ask whether we have actually been wronged or whether we have simply been challenged. We must realize that not every uncomfortable remark is harmful, and not every criticism requires an apology.
We can disagree and still love each other. We can disagree with each other and still hold life together. We can have differences of opinion and still enjoy each other's company. Our relationships should not depend on complete agreement. We should be secure enough to allow others to think differently from us without making them our enemies. A mature society is not one where everyone thinks alike, but one where people can hold different opinions, listen to one another, and continue to live together with respect.
What happens to the culture of forgiveness? A society that is constantly looking for reasons to be offended can slowly become a society that struggles to forgive. A society that keeps a record of every word spoken and every mistake made will find it increasingly difficult to move beyond those offences. Sometimes, what is sought is not reconciliation but recognition of one's offence—a public admission that the other person was wrong. The offence is held onto until the other person is made to feel sufficiently guilty, embarrassed, or silenced. When forgiveness becomes difficult, even small disagreements can leave lasting wounds.
Genuine forgiveness allows people to acknowledge their mistakes without permanently defining them by those mistakes. Perhaps, because our society has become so easily offended, even those who are genuinely wrong are becoming increasingly unwilling to admit their wrongdoing. When every mistake is met with outrage, public shame, or the fear of being permanently labelled, people may become more concerned with defending themselves than acknowledging where they have gone wrong.
A mature society is not the absence of disagreement. In fact, disagreements can make a society progressive when they are taken positively. A secure society does not need everyone to agree with one another. Instead, it allows room for criticism and different opinions, considers them honestly, and even rejects them when necessary, without becoming unnecessarily offended or defensive. Being challenged should not always be seen as being attacked, and being disagreed with should not make us feel threatened. A healthy society should be able to say, “I disagree with you,” without saying, “You have no right to disagree with me.”
We need room for disagreement without immediately turning every disagreement into outrage. We need the courage to speak responsibly and the humility to listen. We should apologize when we genuinely do wrong—not simply because someone disliked what we said. Likewise, we should learn to forgive when a genuine apology is offered.
Could we cultivate a society that can interact without becoming easily offended? Could we reclaim a culture of forgiveness, while still recognizing when something genuinely affects the dignity and character of our society? Could we become more considerate in the way we speak, so that we do not offend others unnecessarily? Could we become a society that does not take every word as an offence, but also does not use “freedom of expression” as an excuse to deliberately hurt others? Could we not become a society that lives harmoniously even with our differences? Could we not cultivate a society that respects the character, dignity, and personality of the people around us, even when we disagree with what they say?
Perhaps what we need is not a society where nobody ever offends anyone, because such a society may never exist. What we need is a society that knows how to speak without deliberately hurting, how to listen without immediately becoming offended, how to disagree without becoming hateful, and how to forgive without holding every mistake against one another.
The way we speak, the way we communicate, and the way we share our concerns should reflect our love for one another rather than promote hatred for one another. A healthy society is not one where nobody gets offended. It is one where people can disagree without destroying one another.
