Paul Brooks: Do we have to voice an opinion?

Try bringing up topics like climate change, indigenous rights, student behaviour, an "H" or a national flag, and listen to the venom from all sides of the arguments.

Where's the middle ground in politics?

Whatever happened to the moderates?

Why do we have to get so passionate about everything? We push the health/social/financial/ mental/spiritual benefits of something and vilify everything else that doesn't suit the fashion of the moment. If you're a proponent of the paleo diet, then protein and vegetables are wonderful, fantastic, incredible! On the other hand, carbohydrates, sugars and associated foods are anathema.

There's no middle ground.

The same applies to politics, even the domestic policy of other countries. What do you think of Hillary Clinton? Donald Trump? Bernie Sanders? We are seldom noncommittal, but eager to share our extreme distaste or passionate adoration of one or the other. How many New Zealanders hate Kim DotCom, even though he has had negligible effect on the lives of most New Zealanders? Ask the question: Do you think David Bain should be compensated for years in prison? - and listen to the ensuing vitriol.

Surrounded, as we are, by the news of the world and the nation, we quickly develop opinions based on available information and influenced by our own ideals and prejudices.

We watch people get hot under the collar during formal debates and we hear appalling personal attacks via the media and broadcasts from Parliament, so that passion to the point of violence is now neither unusual nor particularly distasteful. Try bringing up topics like climate change, indigenous rights, student behaviour, an "H" or a national flag, and listen to the venom from all sides of the arguments.

And that's all they are: arguments. Whatever we say, at whatever volume, is hardly going to change a thing. The point is, we don't have to have a strong opinion on everything. There are water-cooler discussions sometimes best run without us, if only to reduce possible noise levels and stress. The old saying - she'll be right, mate - should, just occasionally, apply.

- Paul Brooks, Wanganui Chronicle