Opinion: A belief not based on absolute certainty or positive knowledge but on what seems true, valid, or probable to one's own mind; what one thinks; judgment.
As someone who is infallible in his reasoning and secure in his own brilliance, possessed of all appropriate knowledge of all things great and small, I have to be careful that I don't appear too smug when I voice my opinions. While I feel a need to correct the incorrect, the other lesser mortals who walk the earth with me, lost in their own ignorance and misconceptions, it can come across as arrogant when I state my opinions as if they are facts. I have spent time with some of these opinions for so long and surrounded myself with other wise people who share my point of view, that I have convinced myself that what I opine is actually the truth.
I'm perfectly fine being a judgmental ass but, boy, does it ever irritate me when I'm in the company of someone who is just as judgmental as I am but holds a diametrically opposed opinion. "Man, is that guy inflexible," I think. "Why doesn't he keep an open mind?" Why, indeed. Because I like to be right. I like to be smarter than other people, or better informed. It feeds some dark space in my ego to poke holes in someone else's argument. It makes me feel bigger and more important.
This Program has taught me that I can learn a lot if I listen to what other people say on all manner of things. After all, I was totally convinced that A.A. wasn't going to work for me. I didn't want to hear that what I was doing wasn't working, so I turned up my nose at any suggestions came my way. One day at a time? Ridiculous. Live and let live? Idiotic. Keep it simple? I'm sorry, but I really must object to this line of reasoning. How can I control the world months from now if I'm mired in the minutia of today?
I can't listen when I'm talking.
I can't listen when I'm talking.
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