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Imagine seats made of foliage and decorated with floral blooms, hammocks strung together between trees, made of vines and stuffed generously with feathers donated by local fauna. Picture pure, unadulterated streams running nearby on their way down from a rocky peak where there is only crisp air to breathe. Wildlife prances about; squirrels make friends with their predators, just like in a Disney cartoon.

Now, in your mind’s eye, complete this image of veritable Eden or utopia with equally picturesque inhabitants.

These people don’t have world wars or animal cruelty. The depletion and pollution of the world’s natural resources is no concern; as it turns out, all their machinery runs on peace, love, dreams and fairy dust. All the inhabitants are hard workers in the market system, ensuring that everyone lives prosperously but also in relation to success they garner for themselves. And here, there is no need for the Viewpoint section of their newspaper.

Now look up from the paper and look around.

Whether unfortunately or not, we are not in this primitive utopia I have described. Instead, reality dictates our world.

In our reality, issues are a complex amalgamate of social elements. People prioritize different elements of an issue when forming their opinions. They take into consideration practical, ethical or financially centered contexts of the issue.

It seems, after a while, that readers are left to sort out a chaos of opinions, each idea stating individual preferences with declining levels of significance beyond the writer.

Consequently, written work seems to have polarized into two rather distinct camps: the mainstream, reliable material on one hand, and the unconventional, shady material on the other.

And much like the way you can find out how good a kisser you are in fashion magazine quizzes, an individual is defined by which camp he prefers reading.

What’s worse, words such as “liberal,” “moderate” and “conservative” have been tagged to these camps, as if validity and reliability were somehow governed by the opinion itself.

Free your mind! I say this not as a hippie, which is the first association you might make with such a statement. I say it as a complex interaction of liberal, moderate, and conservative to the complex mix of readers.

In order to strive toward some semblance of higher wisdom, we must all consider the different standpoints that exist. It is most often the atypical columns that spark the best conclusions, whether or not the final conclusion a reader comes to agrees with the catalyzing column.

The point in diversity is not agreeing with every viewpoint, but gaining a diverse knowledge of opinions. The key then is to strengthen your own ideas by reconsidering – and sometimes revising – what you had previously thought. Review, strengthen, repeat.

In that spirit, it is imperative for our philosophical growth that all well argued and substantiated views be heard, no matter how off the beaten path or unpopular they seem to be.

Of course, this is not easy to manage. Such cases bring the matter of taste to the forefront of our quest for diverse opinions. In this regard, we must take our humor seriously: a good opinion is like a good joke. There is a sticky line that divides the risque from the vulgar. It is a line that must be carefully heeded.

I say this with this coming year of the Viewpoint section in mind. I have already been challenged about a controversial submission my predecessor ran. I encourage people to question the content of the Daily Bruin. For our part, we will continue to run both the well-established opinions as well as those opinions that will reinvigorate the subject and challenge the very assumptions we overlook as fact.

The Viewpoint page will be attempting to incorporate these values into our content in conjugation with diversifying other elements in the page. I hope our readers will assist us in this goal by providing us with a solid mix of feedback and content in the form of letters, submissions and cartoons.

With our commitment to news and validity guiding us, we will strive to hop from paved road to beaten path with poise and balance.

In the end, these roads will most likely not lead to utopia. But at least they will make us better acquainted, involved and knowledgeable in our lovely dystopia.

Hashem is the 2005-2006 Viewpoint editor. E-mail her at nhashem@media.ucla.edu.