It is 2021, and we live in a world of opinions. It has always been so but since the creation of the Internet and later a social media explosion, there is an over abundance of opinions. In a densely crammed atmosphere of opinions, coupled with an efficient instrument of expression, evolved the contrarian.
There is the contrarian that is contrary to a position taken by the majority, one who holds to a position based on moral conviction, and there is the transient who randomly selects matters to oppose. A transient should not be confused with the recreational contrarian, which adopts contrary positions for the sake of enjoyment. Lacking substantial power in other areas, they find that provoking others through opposition satisfies a craving for the tempting taste of authority. When this more provocateur contrarian becomes skillful in agitation, they can cause trouble and dissension within their spheres of influence.
Some are celebrated as contrarian thinkers; however, they are more often viewed as one who contradicts for the sake of opposing. The ornery contrarian is a stubborn bad tempered person who is always seeking to pick a fight. By nature, they are contrarian with a strong sense of self, while being equipped with a stockpile of emotional content ready to randomly reject and oppose. Their judgments and analyses are not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
The feeling they get from interjecting their convictions into social media exchanges is like a blast of dopamine that makes a potential backlash for doing so worth the risk. To know a contrarian and be a person in possession of your own sense of self heightens the probability for lots of strongly vocal exchanges. This activity is disruptive to the covenant of marriage unless one allows the other to win constant quarrels by the default of silence.
In other areas of society, pleading the clichéd fifth of silence can lead to the collapse of moral dignity of a civilization. There comes a time when making our vocal objection of truth to the opposing opinion of lies, an obligation not an option. For the contrarian can have a damaging effect on life, culture, religion, and government.
1 Kings 18:21
21 “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
Job 32:10
10 “Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion.”
Galatians 5:17-18
17 “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”
Leviticus 26:24
24 “Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.”
Ezekiel 16:34
34 “And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.”