Yesterday, we had a meeting at the department because there have been tensions and people feel like they need to express their concerns.
“I feel like nobody listens to me and my opinions are not valued!” one colleague exclaimed.
“Yes,” another colleague agreed. “I have opinions, too, but nobody is listening!”
“Well, we are here now,” I said. “The floor is yours. Do express your opinions.”
“I have opinions,” the colleague responded passionately. “And I want to express them!”
“Yes,” another colleague said. “It’s important to express our opinions. Let’s set up a meeting where we will all express our opinions!”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” I lied. “But since we’re all here anyway, would anybody like to share there opinions?”
“Yes!” a colleague exclaimed. “It’s very important to express our opinions!”
Two hours more of this, and we could finally go home.
“This was such a useful meeting!” a colleague shared in the parking lot. “It’s great to have one’s opinions heard.”
Clarissa's Blog 
Is “I just like to hear the sound of my own voice” an opinion?
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As a budding academic, you have to get used to that. 🙂 I used the meeting to plan my research activities for the next 3 months while pretending to take notes of what people said, so at least that time wasn’t entirely wasted for me.
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My opinion is that we should have the right to express our opinions about having our opinions heard, we should totally have a meeting where we state our opinions about the importance of listening to each other’s opinion to share our opinions.
Or not?
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Exactly. 🙂
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Lots of academics need not only to express their opinions, but also to have their colleagues be awestruck by how well thought out and insightful their opinions are.
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Or you could shrug your shoulders and say, “Didn’t Gasset have something to say about how many people don’t really have opinions anyway”?
[no, wait, hold that tongue, hold that moment, say absolutely nothing, and then walk away …]
OH NOEZ IT’S THE SOUND OF NOTHING SIGNIFYING FURY, OR SOMETHING … 🙂
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