The Right, Ability, and Responsibility of an Opinion

 मत देने से पहले सुनिश्चित कर लेना चाहिए 

मत का अधिकार। 

सभा में बोलने से पहले, सभासद होने की योग्यता ज़रूरी है। 

अंतर है 

मत के अधिकार 

और मत की क्षमता में भी। 

और मत की क्षमता, मत देने का 

उत्तरदायित्व नहीं है। 

This is not really a poem. It tries to explain 3 concepts that I have been thinking of a lot. 

Since the advent of social media, we live in an opinion epidemic. One would expect reasonably intelligent people to know when to speak up, and when to shut up. But apparently, social media performed some sort of invisible brain surgery and took common sense away. Overnight, we all lost our ears and were blessed with a thousand tongues, that could wag at the same time. We were experts at whatever was happening anywhere. From Palestine to America, from Military affairs to public health, we were specialists at everything. What is even more appalling is that opinions are expressed, not from a place of humility (I may not know much, but I feel~) but from a place of blatant entitlement. The 

The right to have and express an opinion

 Before you speak at the table, you must have a seat at the table. 

Do you have a locus standi? Are you a stakeholder in the issue? 

If not, you may have an opinion, but seriously, it has no weight.

The ability to have an opinion 

I am a Sikh. That gives me a seat at the table for issues related to the social ills we see within Sikhism. But my exposure to them is so limited that I have neither anecdotal nor scholarly inputs to offer. There is the right, but not the ability to offer an opinion. 

The responsibility of an opinion 

And this brings me to the wise old owl. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The right and ability to have an opinion - does it place upon our shoulders the responsibility to have an opinion? What do you think? 

My experience has been that in almost every sphere, the truly aware do not speak as often, or as much. What has been your experience?