The recent debate on campus about porn showcased the spread of messages about how to live. My opposing stance is that we should stop telling others how to live their lives.

I have noticed three different types of people who believe their way of life is the best way and try to convince us to take their mighty advice. However, they are fundamentally flawed in telling others how to live and should stop doing so.

The first are uptight do-gooders who are always quick to correct the behavior of their peers, like a pompous writer with demanding and chastising columns.

Secondly, I’ve met eccentric free spirits who say that people should try everything and be open, but these same freedom fighters narrow the breadth of acceptable opinions to their own. How can such a contradictory position be held?

Lastly, even seemingly innocent thinkers who publish what we “ought to do” can’t escape their presumptions to do so. It’s as if they gave themselves the duty to tell other people their own duties. Full of imperatives and bland reasoning, their unending seriousness must be boring and hard to bear.

The solution is simple – we should all stop pushing our beliefs on how to live on others. Nevertheless, you don’t have to go far, or even look up, to find an instance of belief-spreading.

One example is the claim that everyone should pursue higher education. If it is just an opinion, then shouldn’t it be presented as an opinion rather than true or false?

Or take the aforementioned topic of porn. Viewership is a personal thing, and what someone simply sees to be the right way does not justify sharing it with everyone.

The reasons given for certain ways of living life often come down to increasing happiness. However, I think it should make everyone much happier to know that we won’t have to decipher essays or worry about divisive debate anymore when we stop telling others how to live.

If someone just can’t avoid arguing for their way of life, maybe it’s because we make life choices based on what we think is best. That person would probably debate subjects like getting a higher education, the ethics of porn or the right way to live. But they must recognize the problems above, or else be content with my message to stop telling others how to live.

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