Opinions Without Responsibility

No doubt there have been times when all of us have speculated as to what we would do with the world if we were running it. Not infrequently we hear people who are outspoken on the subject and who confidently say: “If I were running this, I would do it differently!” And it often happens that people with the least responsibility for a particular problem seem to have the greatest profusion of opinions concerning it. A doctor with a serious case on his hands is inclined to say little, while almost every casual caller has a tried treatment to offer. And if a man with an ailment were to take all the advice of his friends, he could well be killed by well-intentioned “cures.” With them it may be merely conversation. With him it may be his very life. Also it has become more or less traditional that bachelors give excellent advice on marriage, and that those who have no family responsibility have their favorite formulas for rearing children. Even grandparents are sometimes more confident as to how to rear their grandchildren than they were their own children, perhaps partly because they have had more experience, and partly because they have less responsibility. Also, men who are very much muddled by minor problems often seem quite ready and willing to solve the world’s major problems. Before a man has been invested with an office or a responsibility, he may confidently declare himself on every issue⎯but when an actual obligation is his, when he is charged with the consequences, he learns to respect counsel and caution, and he learns that few problems are as simple as they seem, and that few questions are wholly one-sided. And before taking in too much territory, even conversationally, before presuming to run the affairs of others, we could well begin to demonstrate the soundness of our opinions and the scope of our abilities by running well the things that are ours to run⎯including our own families and our own lives. Opinions without responsibility may be permitted and even invited, but they should be looked upon with careful scrutiny⎯because what a man says he would do if he could may be quite different from what he does do when he can.