“What is the value of your opinion?” Speech

A few years back, I was attending my usual weekly Toastmasters meeting and had the opportunity, as part of the prescribed curriculum of practice, to give a speech about the value of opinions.

I have been writing a lot about this subject lately for future blog articles so thought I would share a copy of the speech with you here as a lead-up to when I post those articles.

Remember, this is a speech, it was written to be memorised and spoken aloud in just a few minutes, therefore the embedded formatting and emphasis notes to the speaker are important.

:Begin Speech:

What is the value of your opinion?

May I ask you what you do?

Do you have an opinion on the current administration? A simple yes or no will suffice.

Okay, I won’t ask what that opinion is because your answer could take all night but I will ask you, do you think your opinion is valid?

Do you believe it is an educated opinion? Or did you just come to some conclusion based on a single headline?

Often the context of an opinion is relevant.

Taking advice on how to run a marathon from a 300lb couch potato would not be the best advice you could ever get.

You need to ask, “From what authority do you speak?”

Or do you?

Society creates roles for you.

You’re a realtor. You’re a financial advisor. You’re a businessman. You’re a lawyer.

Society conditions us from birth to be pigeon holed and to think that is all we are. It induces self-limiting behaviour within our chosen or assigned profession.

Noted historian and occasional philosopher Howard Zinn, in his talk “Artists In A Time of War” claims that artists are transcendent.

Zinn is using transcendent to imply that artists transcend the public wisdom, they speak out against the status quo.

Artists rise above the immediate. They look beyond the madness of the world, the madness of terrorism, the madness of war.

Artists work outside of the framework that society has created.

During the Vietnam War, there was a meeting of historians, 2,000 historians discussing whether they should take a stand on the war.

Some historians issued a proclamation stating that the US should get out of the war.

Others stated that it was not the business of historians to have such an opinion.

It’s not our business?

<pause>

The businessman says, “It’s not our business.” The Doctor says, “It’s not our business.” The journalist says, “It’s not our business.”

You mean, we are going to leave the most important issues of the world to people who run the country?

<emphasis>

How stupid can you be?

Don’t we have enough experience with doing that already?

The reason we do this is that the citizen thinks he is not a citizen, he’s been conditioned to be a Doctor, a lawyer, a marketer, a realtor.

There are people in the arts or a few other professions, far too few, saying “let’s get involved” but they get involved in ways and means of how they are told to. When the government says “get in line, this is what we must do,” that is what everyone does.

Peter Ustinov, the British Actor, spoke out against the Vietnam War and people asked, “What does he know? He’s just an actor. What does his opinion count for?”

What does it count for?

Is it equal to the 300lb couch potato?

Is it equal to the most learned judge in the land speaking out against an unjust war?

There was one artist during the Vietnam War who did not get in line that everybody remembers.

You know her as Jane Fonda or Hanoi Jane, and there is a provocative story to hang your hate on. I’ve read up on the history of that quite a bit and just about all of the rumours are untrue.

Is her opinion validated through the lens of history?

We remember her outspoken opposition against the war but we forget her legion of work conducted for the Civil Rights Movement.

Historical lies can cast a long shadow.

Mark Twain, I am sure you are familiar with at least some of his work even if you only ever read it in grade school, stepped out of his assigned societal role as an amusing storyteller during the American war against the Philippines and everyone began to question his patriotism.

“Why are you unpatriotic?” they ask, “Why are you not loyal?”

Mark Twain, being a man of very few words, gave this reply:

My kind of loyalty is loyalty to one’s country. Not to its institutions or its office holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing. It is the thing that is to watch over and be loyal to. Its institutions are extraneous. They’re its mere clothing and clothing can wear out and become ragged. Cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags, that is a loyalty of unreason.

When you hear an artist speaking out and you catch yourself saying “What does he know? He’s just an artist. They shouldn’t express such public opinions,” perhaps you should also wonder if someone is saying that about you, you Doctors, you lawyers, you businessmen, you writers and realtors and Toastmasters.

What is the value of your opinion?

:End Speech:

The interesting thing about the speech for me is that my opinion of people’s opinions has not changed in the amount of time since I wrote this. I have held various viewpoints on the worthiness of opinions over my life but they all come down to one simple phrase: “From what authority do you speak?”

I read a lot of personal development books, software development books, business management books and project management books and many of them carry very poor advice given by people who lack any real battle-scars. Many people confuse opinion with advice, both when taking it and giving it. Much of what is written as advice is frankly just an opinion for sale. If you wish to be a success, you must learn to distinguish between the two or be forever lead about by your nose by people with an opinion that has a price tag attached.