Am I Right, or Am I Wrong?

 

Do me a favour, don’t tell me that I’m wrong, or that I’m right, unless you can prove it. That’s rude and insulting to me. 

How would you like it? In this day and age, that your experience and intelligence, you’d be justified in being offended.

By all means tell me you disagree, the you have different views, or have drawn alternative conclusions, but to tell me I am wrong is personal.

This is a subtle but extremely important point as we all move forward in this new world. Recent events have made it more apparent than ever that our hitherto reliance on authorities is at best questionable. Our need to think for ourselves, clearly and deeply, on matters than impact us, has never been greater.

Think about it. If I have reached a conclusion on something we share a concern with, how do you know, how can you ever know, that I am right? Hopefully, if I’m bold enough to share my decision, my conclusion, I’ve done my homework. Objectively researched the jumble of information, checked sources, considered others’ views on the matter, matched this with my personal experience. But I may have just heard something on the news and decided to agree with it.

Even if I am right, that right may only be right for me in my life and with my agenda. My rightness does not make it right for you.

Blindly accepting another’s view or decision is yesterday’s game, or maybe, yesterday’s mistake. In this new age, do your own thinking AND acknowledge others’ right to think for themselves. And if their disagreement with you doesn’t really make any difference to you, how about tolerance of their views?

That said, we all have that pesky little habit of labelling people as right or wrong rather than recognising the stimulant for that label is just their thinking and personal decisions.

Here’s a promise, I’ll do my utmost to change that habit and when we have a difference of opinion to cheerfully enquire how you reached your conclusion. Can you promise me the same?

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