But, I continued, that does not mean that the opinions themselves have equal value. So you may be entitled to hold the opinion that you may beat your newborn to death, or (a more common opinion) that you may beat your teenage daughter to death if she is seen with a boy, but that opinion leads to action - and the opinion is not as valid as the opinion (based on inherent human rights to self determination) that as we grow up, we increasingly have the right to make our own life choices, as long as these do not harm others.

Here a few of my students went into shock. You could hold any opinion you wanted. After all, all opinions were equal.

Plus, more shock, what was I saying? That opinions connected with action?? That made no sense to them. Opinions were just opinions. It was just something you believed and (going back to a favorite mantra) ALL OPINONS WERE EQUAL.

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How could opinions be separated from action, I countered. Of course they connected with action. Do you think Hitler had a high opinion of Jews, and yet set up concentration camps to kill them? Or do you think (as the record shows) that he had a very negative opinion of them, and that this opinion came long before the concentration camps. In other words, the opinions fueled his behavior.

Over and over, I said, you can see how opinions lead to action. The people who acted for equal rights of people of all races BELIEVED in the equality of people of all races. Likewise people who acted for women's rights, the rights of gays and lesbians, children's rights, animal rights.

Aha, they went en masse. See, it's just a matter of belief.

Is it, I asked. Can we not show that people of different races have equal value, that women and men, people with differing sexual orientations, children and adults, have equal right to life and to develop their capacities?

No. Absolutely not. It was just a matter of opinion. And therefore (over and over again), while they might share my opinion that men and women were equal, they were absolutely totally against my opinion that my opinion was not just a matter of opinion.

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