To truly achieve a democratic way of thinking, Americans must look past their one-sided beliefs. They must understand that the world operates from different sides. They must understand that reality, much like their favorite television show, is continuing whether they agree with it or not.
The Inspiration
In last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy, America cried as O'Malley raged against his colleagues for performing a dangerous surgery on his father. His father had insisted they go through with the surgery, no matter how much his son resisted. As a result, his life hangs in the balance for one more week.
Great television. Great philosophy. The doctors seemed to be fulfilling the wishes of their patient, who wanted nothing more than to live. In the process, they overlooked one major detail.
(As O'Malley so profoundly put it...) The risk of surgery was too great. Without it, his family could have had weeks, months to say goodbye to him.
His father didn't know any better; they did.
America hung on every word as the doctors defended themselves. Our hearts ached for them, knowing they had fulfilled a dying man's wishes at all costs. We never considered another side to this story until O'Malley pointed out the obvious. His father had no medical knowledge of the risks. His father had only personal interpretation, a personal opinion of what would work best. In life or death, black and white, yes or no, there is no room for an uneducated opinion. And for once in our lives, last night America understood that.
The Effect
There is a defined line between fact and opinion that is often overlooked by the uneducated. Basic philosophy teaches that opinions can never be proven, only argued in an educated manor. Since this is undeniably the case, neither can any one be more right or more wrong than another. Unfortunately, opinions can most certainly be argued better or worse, causing them to seem much more factual than they really are.
Such is the case in the everyday lives of Americans. Each of us walks this Earth with stout opinions, the majority of which we will argue to no end. Some of us argue them exquisitely. We rarely stop to consider the origin of these views on politics, religion, love, life, wrong, right. In most cases, we can't even pinpoint when they came to be. But they are our opinions and as Americans we have the right to them. And as Americans we reserve our right to voice them and to vote for officials who voice them too. And we argue our points of view and present them as facts to the opposition. And we shun nonbelievers and anyone else who resists our way of thinking. And we pat ourselves on the back for standing up for what we believe in and all is well and good in this free, opinionated country of ours.
Until the time comes to make an educated decision, one that must be based on consideration of fact. A decision in which we are no longer allowed to hang on to these personal opinions that we've picked up along the way, from God-knows-who, or Allah-knows-where. Once this time comes, we must push all opinion to the side and base our decision on honest-to-goodness truths. But by this time, we, with our outspoken opinons and steadfast beliefs, have voted into office politicians who were equally as passionate about abortion/gay marriage/capital punishment/this issue/that issue as we were. We elected those who were best at voicing their opinions. Who best argued what we were not able to so poetically argue. We never stopped for a second to think that our opinions were just that: opinions. We never stopped to listen to any other side of the argument, much less one that outright opposed our own. We went to the rallies and the debates and the voting booths with our fists in the air, chanting our beliefs with blinders on, never skipping a beat.
The Movement
Much like O'Malley, America will never see the wrong in viewing opinion as fact until we remove ourselves from the decision-making process and teach ourselves how to look at things objectively. As a country, we must find a way to understand that our opinions are not black and white truths. We must find a way to look past our massive opinions and consider what is best for ourselves personally and collectively. We have become so sided... Right vs. Left, Democrats vs. Republicans, Conservative vs. Liberal, Pro-Bush vs. Anti-Bush... that we've forgotten that we are all suppose to be on the same side. Instead of arguing our opinions every day, we should be working together.
How is the best way to conserve the freedom that allows us to be so closed-minded? How can we protect ourselves so that we may argue another day? How can we keep the country safe so that we may find out the fate of George O'Malley's father? These are the important questions that we must answer together, after considering all of the facts. Let's forget, for just a while, that we came from different sides and we have such different views and we have been arguing for generations and we don't even know why. Let's forget our opinions for just a while and evaluate our country's current situation. Let's redirect all the energy we're wasting throwing blame from one person to the next and find a logical route from where we are now to where we want to be. Let's all jump on the same ship before each of us drowns in regret. When this is all said and done, our children or grandchildren's children can pick up our gloves and continue fighting right where we left off. But until then, let's focus on making sure they get the chance.
