THE world of public opinion is, of course, very dynamic, since it is like society’s living network that analyzes and discusses issues that unavoidably flow in a living organism such as our human society.
Let’s remember that human society is not just a physical, inert grouping of people. It is a living organism with its proper spirit and ethos, expressed in its culture and arts. It therefore has to be taken care of accordingly.
Public opinion is like a living organ, akin to a heart or kidney or liver, endowed with a specific function meant to sustain the life and development of persons, taken both individually and together as a society.
Just as the heart purifies the blood and pumps it back to the body, and as the kidney collects and processes the waste, and as the liver produces enzymes needed for digestion, public opinion clarifies issues and helps to build solidarity and cohesion in society. It that regard, it’s a very important part of life.
We need to sharpen our awareness of our duty to keep it strong and healthy, that is, that it’s working well. Working well means that public opinion should serve the true and complete purpose of our life, and not just working in any which way, or working only for some limited purpose of life.
We have to be wary of our tendency to fall into doing things in any which way, thinking that it is how a democracy works. For democracy to work properly, it has to be infused with the proper spirit of freedom that in the end is about pursuing the truth in charity. In short, it has to be driven by the spirit of God.
Public opinion, therefore, has to be grounded on God. It should not just be a free-for-all arena of opinion-making, inspired by just any spirit. It should not simply remain on our various ideas of what is fair, true and charitable. These values and criteria can only come from God as their original source and ultimate end.
We need to make this basic clarification because many people now are of the thinking that the ultimate norms and standards to be used in our public opinion are just ourselves—our own ideas and consensus, etc.—as if all these things just come from us, or that we are the creators of these things.
We have to discard that mentality. It’s because of this attitude that we often find ourselves in irreconcilable differences, leading to conflict, violence and decadence. So, instead of building up our society, we would tend to harm and destroy it.
Grounding our public opinion on God gives a proper framework to our continuing social discourse. It’s a frame that does not straitjacket a person or idea. It is inspired by love that expresses itself in compassion, understanding, tolerance, magnanimity, mercy.
The absolute truths that such frame fosters do not erase the relative. The precision it strives to achieve is not of the mathematical, impersonal type. It is rather the precision of charity that allows the full play of freedom, including its abuses, but still holds on to the truth, no matter what it costs.
It is precisely because of this ideal God-based character of public opinion that we have to be prepared to meet suffering, since in pursuing truth and justice, we cannot help but meet differences, misunderstanding and all forms of pain and suffering. In short, we have to be ready to carry the cross in the world of public opinion.
Just the same, public opinion has such a positive and constructive potential that everyone should try his best to participate in it. Of primordial concern is to make our public opinion relate all our human concerns, especially the big and crucial issues, to God.
We should not allow it to ramble and meander in the merely technical, social, economic or political aspects of our life. While we have to give these aspects their due attention, we should do all to be able to relate them to God.
This is a tall order, and this is precisely why we should do all, wasting no time and effort, to see how the issues relate to God. We have to remember that the earthy and temporal matters come and go. What remains in eternity is whether with these issues and concerns, we end up with God.
That is to say, if we manage to live in truth, justice and charity. In short, public opinion should reflect and reinforce the ultimate spiritual, moral and supernatural dimensions of our life. (Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
