OMG that's offensive!
Another holiday season has past and a new year is here. Christmas holiday is usually filled with happiness, family, friends and much merriment for all; unless you find it offensive. This puzzles me. How can a wonderful holiday or wishing someone a merry Christmas be construed as offensive? So I did some mild mental math and hypothetically removed the religious connotations and the popular folklore from Christmas; to understand maybe those are the things that people might find offensive. So what’s left? Well it’s simple... love, peace and joy. And I’m sure on the tiniest of human levels we can all relate to those things, unless we’re robots or maybe zombies...So here's to 11 months from now...Merry Christmas!
It’s an interesting upheaval we face these days. Why are people so easily offended by things that are normally not meant to be? On first impressions it seems a little tit for tat, and we're eagerly waiting our turn to pounce ‘The offensive’ card. Of course there are many issues we can all be a little more sensitive to, but are we being just a little too soft? Are we over reacting to nonsensical notions?
I can’t help but wonder what’s the worst that can happen if someone offends us? Do we automatically have an aneurism and drop dead? I know I’m making light of it but really, aren’t there worst things? If someone calls you stupid, are you? Will you be the spokesperson for morons everywhere because someone said so? Perhaps we might be putting too much value on other people’s opinions. I love opinions. I myself have many. My entire blog is built on my very own opinions, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re all entirely factual; and the two should never be confused.
Opinions are ways we communicate our feelings and point of views, and of course absolutely nothing wrong with that. But have our own views over shadowed everyone else’s and ignorance clouded our better judgment? Has ignorance and judgement become the bias that governs what we claim is offensive? Can we say that our opinions are impartially justified? It seems as if we’re in a hyper sensitive cyclone that’s spiraling out of control and in its wake we find ourselves completely clueless and pointing fingers.
Fear is a very powerful emotion which eventually manifests into insecurity. If it plays a part in our daily constitution, seeing reason or good sense is difficult. We might find ourselves unknowingly communicating negative thoughts. If we hold true to those negative ideas and believe them to be factual, we will no doubt find conflict. We’ll most likely be offended and in turn express something that offends someone else. That being said; we should of course be free to express what we like at any time, it's healthy. But maybe we should level the playing field and strive for impartial discusions, without ignorant stipulations on important issues.
Maybe before we shoot we should ask ourselves some questions; perhaps even giving other people the benefit of the doubt. When passionate opinions run hot it is indeed difficult to sometimes brush them off. But hey, maybe we shouldn’t take all opinions so seriously; our own included. All we might need is a good laugh every now and then; and in this day in age we can consider ourselves lucky, that there’s no shortage of that.
