Opinions
Almost everyone forms opinions about something, the weather, politicians, inlaws or outlaws, the economy. Our opinions are based on our beliefs, mindset, and perceptions of the world. Can you listen to people’s opinions without getting upset? Do you try to understand them? Is there a rule when you should just close your mind and not even listen? One idea that I try to follow is that a coin has 3 sides, heads, tails and the edge. I first heard this from Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame. If you stand on the edge and look at both sides you will have a better base for your opinions.
Today I watched this video because the Title Elon Musk Sends Final Warning to the Government, No more kids caught my attention. Then I started reading some of the comments people posted below the video. What I saw caused me to write this post.
It is less than a 2-minute clip, people commenting do not know the context of what he is talking about. For a short period of time, I looked for the longer version of the Interview and didn’t find it. I believe Elon is talking about the current model most countries have and governments and is speaking about how the demographic and economic models were set up to work. He may have read the article The Looming Population Implosion. It is an article in a Scientific Journal and therefore can sustain
Negative Opinions
Many people commenting on the video had negative comments. Which left me wondering if they even watched the video. The pattern I saw in the negative comments was people being worried about dwindling resources. They have a scarcity mentality. I understand where they are coming from as at one time I possibly would have thought this way as well. I learned about the scarcity of resources in elementary school. It was obviously impactful and some people still have this idea. They have not moved or learned beyond it. However, when some of the posters call Elon “dumb” I cringe and laugh at their mentality. This is ridiculous, does it make them feel better to call someone who has built companies and has managed to pull together resources and people to make electric cars and rockets “dumb”? It is obvious they have no understanding of what he is talking about.
Instead of them seeing the video and asking themselves what is he talking about and why does he think this? They start attacking him and writing rude comments based on their opinions. Maybe he has access to more or different information than they have? He does work with Nasa and has meetings with government officials. I like to listen to differing opinions when they are based on knowledge and ideas that are helpful. You can learn from people this way. Why do they think this way? Is it based on knowledge? If you have a closed mind you cannot achieve more than what you already have.
Fear and Ignorance
The majority of these people’s opinions are not worth reading or listening to as they are just based on fear and ignorance. People’s opinions of you are not real to you unless you accept them as real. Think of all the opinions people have of famous people. They can range from hate to love and everything in between on the same person and situation. The take away from this is the next time someone writes mean and negative opinions ignore them. To have an even better experience you can have a laugh at the negative perceptions, it makes life more fun.
“What people think of you is none of your business.” – Regina Brett
