A right to an opinion…

Approximately two weeks ago one of the Latvian politicians, expressing his opinion about the situation in the country said such words: “Those who want that the government resign are the less educated part of the nation.” At the first I felt a bit shocked. But as we all have a right to an opinion… Then I started to think - but there are so many people from the intelligence which are now fighting for a better situation. But as we all have a right to an opinion…

Two years ago we had a lecture course about Public Relation and Communication theories. One of them was the theory about Spiral of Silence. As D.A.Infante has pointed out, this theory shows that people are afraid of social isolation as they don’t want to be perceived differently as the rest¹. An unused right to an opinion…

Before the election every party promises “better times”. Because they know - the citizens, who are more than the people in the parties (and much more than those who get elected and can form the government) won’t hear promises which foresee to live not so good for more than two years till there some will have a chance to fix all the problems which are usual in nowadays countries not looking on their development.

At this time in Latvia it is a usual opinion - the government should resign. As one of my colleagues form the centre for the public policy was rhetorically asking - how much more people should go “on the streets” - meaning the gathering of the nation in the 3^rd on November - so that probably cleverer part of the society would do the right choice.

So I am wondering when the spiral of silence stopped to work? At least in Latvia…
As it seems - there are some people who want to prove that the concrete unpopular opinion has power. Good luck.

¹ D. A. Infante et.al., Communication Theory. 2003:286, Illinois: Waveland press, Inc.