One who is offended by another’s assessment of their life choices indicates a degree of insecurity in those choices. In contrast, anyone who is truly confident in their choices and beliefs, their conscience will insulate from even the harshest of words. A snapshot of my life reveals a series of career and life choices that many in modern culture, the media and even my old circle of friends today publicly revile: lawyer, government employee, executive in the military-industrial complex, political and social conservative and Christian. I’ve been unfriended occasionally on social media, but have never unfriended anyone. I feel that every individual deserves respect and a fair hearing on their beliefs, if they choose to share them.
But we live in a society that’s much different than the one I knew as a child and young man. My home was a safe place – but the outside world (my neighborhood, my school, my places of employment) all were jungles that I had to learn to deal with or be labeled a mama’s boy. Today society tries to over-protect young people (with the odd exception of the most innocent of all, the unborn child), and demands the creation of “safe zones,” castigating anyone who violates those zones. The result: a society of new entrants into the adult population easily offended and unable to deal with even the most basic of challenges that life will inevitably throw their way.
This is evidenced every day across social media. The adult world is not as nurturing as the one that protected these young people in the classroom, so when they freely express their views about life in the public domain, expecting others will agree with them, they get a rude awakening. Few know how to respectfully respond to those who hold contrary opinions nor how to deal with even the most modest critiques of their own life choices and beliefs.
Whatever a person’s beliefs and choices, if sincerely held, there’s no reason to be offended by another who professes a contrary opinion, and there’s no need to justify yours to them – though plenty of valid reasons to explain them.