It's not my way or the highway
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June 6, 2019
Dear Editor,
I’ve decided that I alone should be on the road. I believe that I know how fast to drive at any given time and in every given circumstance. So, every vehicle that I pass is going too slow and every vehicle which passes me is going too fast. I find myself hard pressed behind the wheel, and seemingly oppressed by others with whom I am required to share the road. Self-interest, circumstantial preference and a bit too much self-certainty combine to narrow my vehicular operating standards to this level of driving bias. These are not opinions which I hold for myself, but those which I hold for all of the other drivers. I judge everyone else’s velocity and position relative to my own.
Fortunately, though I confess that though I do often feel this way, I do not take these opinions of mine very seriously. If I mistook them for a fair and objective appraisal of all other drivers, then that would indicate a decidedly self-congratulating perspective, most likely held in error.
For the most part, I like the editorial columns and their respondents. It’s not because I necessarily agree with stated positions or share the reasons for their biases. I’ve read much absurdity, no question, but editorials and letters are merely opinions. However, I dislike the easy labeling and disparagements used to describe the positions of others. It is an easy, invective paint job, if an irrational one, to hide opinion behind labeling others as socialists, fascists, bigots, and the like. Dictionary definitions notwithstanding, these words are flung as interpretative weapons of judgment. Interpretations which their objects are likely to deem incorrect.
Editorializing and opinion offering is simply part of the ideological debate which permeates all of our notions of what we think other people should be thinking, believing and doing. The danger, as it seems to me, comes when we really do think that we alone are the properly informed, rightly motivated and clearly seeing, so that we think all other drivers had just better not be on the road with us, unless they are just there to cheer us on.
Bob Crowder,
Thompson Falls
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