DeLong column: Opinion polls can be obvious, depending on who you ask
Richard DeLong
Do you trust public opinion polls? Although Anonymous stated with tongue-in-cheek that 98% of all statistics are made up, I guess that comports with the old adage: “Figures don’t’ lie, but liars figure.” Nevertheless, I occasionally do accept as trustworthy the results of an opinion survey. Some recent ones produced quite believable results.
One such exercise reported that more than 80% of those questioned attested that post-pandemic they would prefer continuing to work from home all or most of the time. Left unsaid was, “.. . .rather than dragging out of bed at the crack of dawn, shaving legs or face, donning actual presentable clothing, gobbling a protein bar on the way out the door, driving among the crazies 30 minutes or more to work, putting up with the rude bosses and the crude co-workers at the office or factory all day, driving the return trip home amid the craziers, and only the
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Anyone who reads this space regularly knows that I am fascinated by what makes us, us. And what makes me, me. Stories, history, perspective, and faith are just four of the factors that mix to make us who we are from the individual to the whole of humanity. Some things bring nearly everyone together â celebrations, drinks, food, and expressions of friendship and love.
When it comes to our identity as a nation or a culture, poetry may be the greatest reservoir. With just one line or verse a poem can call to mind whole stories. Sometimes, usually in the form of a song, a poem can take us to the best and worst moment of our lives.
Upon the tragic death of a friend, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the poem âIn Memoriam.â For a long time, Tennyson blamed God for the accident. It took him 16 years to regain his faith, but with significant insight he wrote: âThere lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.â
We would have lost this beautiful poem forever had not Tennyson honestly battled with his doubts and won.
What exactly did Tennyson mean? I think he meant that a person who faces his/her doubts in complete honesty is a person of much greater integrity than those who simply rip off a creed without careful consideration.