Maybe the co-exist people are right. Maybe there is a simpler solution to the world’s problems. We need to remove opinions — the divisive ones, at least.
After all, what makes Barbara Boxer a liberal, Mike Huckabee a conservative, and Edward Snowden a traitor? What makes Charlie Hebdo blasphemous and Hobby Lobby intolerant?
If everyone had the same opinion, there would be no arguments to monitor, no rebellions to manage, no wars to make.
Sure, you say. Like that is ever going to happen. You can’t teach people to have the same opinions.
Actually, we are teaching them already — with promising results.
In our schools, we foster self-esteem and sensitivity, encouraging students to express themselves while making them dependent upon our own opinions.
This phenomenon is quite simple, really. By sheltering their self-esteem, we keep it fragile and pliable so it cannot bear disapproval. Thus, when students are opposed by a classmate or a teacher who asserts that disagreeing is a form of bullying, they quickly adjust their opinions — without force, of course.
We always encourage freedom and individuality; we merely teach what is proper to believe — which opinions to keep.
The word “tolerance” is key in this process. Our new generations learn to tolerate the views of everyone else while expecting no one to tolerate their own. They will never enforce the ideas that place them in the discomfiting position of disagreement, especially as they become adults and face the uncomfortable realities of lawsuits, unemployment, and media.
They will not repeat the mistakes of Hobby Lobby, Charlie Hebdo, and Edward Snowden. They will not become divisive.
We have a perfect opportunity at our fingertips. Schools and society are already softening problematic standards such as truth and morals, preparing people to accept the opinions they are taught. If we continue to use these processes to change their thinking, we can change the world and remove conflict forever.
Let the people have their opinions; we just need to make them the right opinions.