by Kelsey Marie Harris

Opinions are an infliction, or affliction, depending on how you look at it. More than wanting to be right, we have this pulsing urge to prove that everyone with an opposing idea is wrong. Insecurity plus validation equals overcompensation. The flawed equation of humanity.

We could argue forming opinions has led to advances in technology, world progression, and the betterment of society, but why would we? The meaning of life, it seems, is perpetual confusion. A wise person told me “Our greatest misstep might be assigning meaning in the first place.”

Ironically, I think overthinking has stunted evolution. There’s no one left willing to lick the frog to find out it’s psychedelic. The few risks we take are calculated by how many likes we might garner from the photo opp.

Scientists are being silenced. Eco justice is being put on the back burner as if it doesn’t directly tie into racial injustice; or maybe because it does. The media is being used as a weapon to keep us complacent; ensuring we ask all the wrong questions, tie ourselves together with irrelevant opinions, and trip over our own feet.

The merry-go-round spins, and we calculate the wind, measure it against gravity, and fall into equations of math and philosophy. Eventually it stops and we haven’t gotten anywhere. Even the delight we felt in spinning fades as quick as it came. 360 degrees of nothing to show for effort.