One of the beauties to living in a free country (I know the USA is no longer free, but bear with me) is that we are allowed to express an opinion based on the freedom to think for ourselves. Because it is an opinion, it is by definition subjective.

The other side of that freedom to express an opinion is the freedom for other people to disagree with that opinion. Again, that disagreement, being an opinion itself, is subjective.

Now, what happens when someone feels that his or her opinion should carry more weight than that of another person? I'd say that more conflicts arise from this situation on the Internet especially than in many face-to-face discussions. Why is that?

I recently discussed with someone with whom I've had a long history of conflicts on the Internet and we seemed to agree that the Internet--unlike real life--does not lend itself to conveying tone, meaning, and inflection in our words. So, if the person reading misunderstands the intent of the writer, then the situation has the potential to turn ugly quickly. That other person and I agreed to avoid those articles of each other and just agree to disagree.

The challenge that we as writers have here on Xomba and elsewhere on the Internet is to choose our words carefully and try and look at things from the reader's perspective. We are taught in school that, when writing essays or reports, we need to think of who will be reading it. That sometimes gets lost when using the computer to compose our words.

So, what happens when you happen to disagree about the opinions expressed or conclusions reached by a different author of an article or comment? There are a couple of things, actually. First, you can ask for clarification on the point expressed. Given the disparate membership of Xomba at least, there is potential for misunderstandings. Two, failing that, you can just agree to disagree and move on. There are few things more futile than arguing opinions over the Internet, especially if the subjects of the argument are politics or religion, which are arguably the two most divisive topics known to man.

This brings me back to the title of this article and also its conclusion. In a free world, we all have the right to the thoughts in our heads and the freedom to express them. If we are opposed to having other people tell us how to think and behave, then we should extend that same courtesy to other people and not tell them how to think and behave.

If we truly want to stay in our most productive mindset for being prosperous here, then we need to maintain our focus on being productive without having to continually take a step backward or take our eyes off of our goals to accommodate someone who has something less than our best interests at heart.