Welcome...

The name of this blog is Muccings...a play on my last name "Mucci." Most Blogs contain the musings, rambling thoughts and opinions of their owners, sooo.

Speaking of opinions, like belly buttons, every has one. Many among us believe that everyone's opinion has equal worth, equal value, deserve equal attention and respect. I will break the trend and strongly disagree. Not all opinions are created equal. Some of us give more thought to our opinions than do others. Some opinions are based on more accurate, or more helpful, or more timely, or more pertinent, information. The clarity or manner of expression and the time honored usefulness of opinions also affect their value.

For example, many parents assume all opinions are of equal worth when it comes to raising our children - it's no longer "father knows best" but "child", "peer", or "public school" knows best. We wind them up, give them money, send them off to friends and school, and vow to respect their opinion, no matter what it might be. Our own opinions are held in check - we don't want to offend or lose their respect. Hogwash! We have a 20 to 30 year head start on these new people. Their experimental behavior and opinions can't have half the value of our experience. We owe it to them to make our experience and our opinions known - even well into their adulthood when most older parents are brainwashed by most media into believing we lose our value as intelligent beings. This causes our future generations to lose the wisdom of the past. We wonder why there is a disconnect between our generations. I believe it is because the older generation is intimidated or brainwashed into believing that their opinions have less value.

All opinions have the right to be expressed. But not all opinions have equal value. Not all ideas or philosophical concepts have equal value. They do, however, have value and merit insofar as they are part of the marketplace of ideas. They all have the right to compete for recognition based on reason, truth, merit, helpfulness, and longevity of worth. The best opinions rise to the top over time. The weakest ones sink in the morass with most others. There are the "politically correct" opinions that seem true and appropriate at the time, but are they. Are they really true or good? Perhaps for the moment, to support a need or greed of the moment by one or more special interests. However, if they survive over time, then their worth is proven.

That aspect of longevity of worthiness of ideas and opinions is a good delineator between "conservative" and "liberal". A conservative holds to ideas and opinions that have withstood the test of time; a liberal tends to put experience and tradition in the background in favor of the new, unproven, and "politically correct." Mark me as a conservative. There is so much good and truth that we have forgotten over the generations. There is so much energy expended relearning the lessons of the past.