The Personal Angle

   I mentioned briefly in my last post that people will only listen to your opinion if you go for the personal angle, give them a reason for why you have your opinion. I said that I've learned from my Batman posts, learning that I was far from the only one to post such things. I've learned that it doesn't matter if you're not the only one to say something. What matters is that you're one of the ones to say it. If you're really lucky, you'll be the one to express that concept the most eloquently. If you're really really lucky, other people will recognize this fact. This is the personal angle I told you about. You have your own experiences to spin it however you want it, in a way that no one else can, so your opinion is worth having and worth being recognized. Individuality. A breath of fresh air.


    Go for the personal angle. You've got to have the personal angle in current events, otherwise anyone could tell the story. You've got to have the personal angle in anything, otherwise what makes you worth listening to over anyone else? Even the experts; after all, what is expertise but this?


   It's taken me a while to know what to say on this when there's so much said already. Hopefully this will do justice to anything at all.


   In times of tragedy, anyone who was there can tell the story, but we don't need that. We don't need people explaining how it's impossible for us to know how we feel. We don't need the story, we need their story. We need to see these people as people to get the sense of loss. Come to praise Caesar, not to kill him and bury him over and over again. Life is not short. Life is long, and this allows us all to be connected more than you could know. Do you want a personal angle? Connections. Potentially it's already there.

   Personal angle. I didn't feel anything at all during the attacks of September 11. Should I have? They took place hundreds of miles away, to people I did not care about. I may or may not have learned empathy since then. I felt something during this, but maybe that's because this was much closer to home, in more ways than one.


   Personal angle. This takes place too quickly on the heels of Adam's death. Or, not that. That Adam's death happened at all, and then this happened. Now that I know bad news. I'm not sure, if 9/11 happened again, if I would still feel nothing. Which is closer to home? Businessmen or moviegoers? Which is closer to home? New York or Colorado?

   Personal angle. The University of Colorado is a nice school; I don't know why he'd want to give that up. I've been there. I've seen things he's seen, maybe met people he's met. I wouldn't doubt it. Did he spend his time in the library or down in the bookstore? Those were some of my favorite haunts while I was there.


   Personal angle. I've always felt the deaths of minor characters in films moreso than I've felt the deaths of the major ones. The minor ones are just civilians, going about their lives till they get disintegrated meaninglessly. Our heroes' deaths, however, are not in vain, even if it's something as simple as advancing the plot. Heroes are orphans, lone wanderers with no attachments. They leave no grieving families in the wake of their deaths.


   Personal angle. We all hold the potential for great evil. It is right there, nearest to all of our cores. In this sense it's the most intimate yet least personal angle of them all. It is dispassionate, ruthless. Why would anyone listen to these? There are a million different reasons why, but only one reason why not. Influences are not actions, though.


   So it only matters if you're one of the ones to say something? Well, no. Even then, you should do your research beforehand, to get a sense of what's in the field, to know which aspects of your own personal angle would seem fresh. If you do your research, odds are someone's expressed it more eloquently than you could have had before, and now you know it. Their words are now part of your shared experience. You are now free to put the personal angle on it, as much as you want, and look like you know what you're talking about.

   No, I'm not saying it's okay to speak your mind. You keep your mouth shut. It's precisely that kind of entitled attitude that leads to stuff like this in the first place.