I love opinions.
I like asking people their opinions and hearing or reading what their response is.
One of the prerequisites for being my friend is that you’ll be asked “What do you think about…?” any number of subjects. Even absurd viewpoints can be downright entertaining. Just think about it.
Writing reviews and sharing my own take on things doesn’t come easy for me. I figured: I don’t care about my opinions, why should you? But the more time goes by, the more important I think it is to express your opinion, and in particular to stand up to those who believe in silencing speech they don’t agree with.
As someone who always reads the newspaper editorials and “letters to the editor” first, it’s no surprise that I found This Little Opinion Plus $1.50 Will Buy You a Coke: A Collection of Essays by political science professor emeritus Douglas Young as delicious and refreshing as it is. The title of the book is something Young would say as a college professor when pressed for his opinion in the classroom. He wanted his students to think for themselves.
This Little Opinion Plus $1.50 Will Buy You a Coke is the thoughts in one man’s head
This Little Opinion has sixty-five essays about the real things: the thoughts in one man’s head, put down on paper. These essays were published in a many different newspapers and publications and cover a motley of topics. I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Douglas Young to talk about the value of getting your thoughts down on paper, something recommendable not only to communicate to others, but also to understand yourself and what you really think.
“I can refine my thoughts about any topic so much better if I write them down. I find that when I am writing something, when I’m expressing my views on the computer screen, that forces me to have to think through them much more thoroughly than if I’m just thinking about any topic or conversing about it with someone.”
Douglas Young interview on The Paul Leslie Hour, 2024.
And you, the reader, are the beneficiary of this refined thinking and writing. There’s a lot to ponder when reading This Little Opinion Plus $1.50 Will Buy You a Coke.
A vast variety of topics are explored in this book
The first essay is about Pat Robertson’s likely Presidential candidacy. How’s that for a blast from the past?
Here are some of the other opinions chronicled, in random order:
Dr. Young argues marijuana should be legal.
You may think Ernesto “Che” Guevara may look cool on a t-shirt, but the man was a Stalinist mass murderer. He was not cool.
In “Secular Political Fanatics,” Young makes the case that although religious fanatics are routinely criticized, they pale in comparison to the obnoxiousness and intolerance of secular fanatics who all too often get a pass and even an endorsement by academia and those in power.
Then there’s his essay “Celebrating the Chinese People,” in which Young lovingly expresses his fondness for the Chinese people, asking the reader to consider whether “the unelected Communist Party dictatorship in Beijing speaks for over 1.4 billion Chinese.” He intelligently poses the question of how we should feel about the world thinking our United States government always represents us.
“Twelve Questions to Consider About Mass Shootings,” was actually published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and is perhaps the best essay I’ve ever read about questions to carefully consider and answer when there are media and political reactions any time a shooting occurs.
Also illuminating and inspiring is “Protecting Our History from America’s Red Guards,” in which Young condemns the “leftist lynch mob” seeking to erase our national monuments. He opens each essay with a few words and that’s one of the best things about this selection. He writes about refusing to self-censor even when shunned and the value in saying “hello” even when someone has made up their mind that you’re their enemy. Bravo.
If I had to find one criticism of the book, it would be a minor one. At times it was hard to tell when the preamble ended and the essays began. I wish a different font, size of text, bold, or italics differentiated the originally published essay from the introductory lines. It’s a very minor detail and just my little opinion. You know the rest of the phrase by now.
Young is unabashedly in favor of liberty
I certainly don’t agree with Dr. Young on everything, which only makes life more interesting. But one thing is self-evident from these essays. Douglas Young is decidedly on the side of liberty, and liberty is one of my favorite words.
If you are interested in well-thought out opinions, I recommend This Little Opinion Plus $1.50 Will Buy You a Coke. Like the Atlanta-born soft drink, the book gave me a little pep as I read the essays on airplanes, in hotel rooms and at the beach. It was interesting to see what Young was thinking about various then-current events over the years.
Read the essays and think critically about what you believed and why. Maybe you’ll be strengthened in how you see things, or maybe you’ll change your mind, as unlikely as that typically is. This Little Opinion Plus $1.50 Will Buy You a Coke is just the thing to get you thinking.
