Overwhelmed by opinion? Here’s how to cope

quot homines, tot sententiae: as many men, so many opinions. What seemed a universal human truth for the playwright Terence in 161 BC now finds itself, amidst the chaotic swirl of online news and opinion in AD 2017, drastically in need of adaptation: quot sentias, tot sententiae – there are only as many opinions as you experience.

This should be a golden age for the exchange of opinion, for sharing diverse ideas through increasingly interconnected media. Yet, without filtering or curation, an unmanageable welter of report and comment has blurred the distinction between the two, bewildering even the most determined of readers. Strange as it is to say, the immutable importance of free speech is being lost in its curation-free expression.

Society is defended by the panoply of diverse opinion. The independent voices of politicians, the judiciary, academics, columnists and (that troubled species) experts remain its lifeblood. These fields command attention not because of idle conservatism or twee traditionalism but because in each it’s so hard-won a process to gain a voice, requiring long-term study and privileged access to new material.