WHAT THIS WORLD IS COMING TO
Sunday, March 7, 2021 - daily column #6689
It is so easy to Monday-morning-quarterback last week’s newsmakers.
Or yesterday’s news.
The world of free speech and real-time communication merges in masses of near-truths, falsehoods and opinions – too many people without a nose for facts, a mind for calculation, nor a requirement to listen to some evidence before coming to a decision.
You don’t have to look very far. Any phone, device, or TV near you, this ultimate level of human knowledge spits out media-machined parts that fit someone’s narrative without passing a smell test, let alone fact-checking.
I’m not just talking about politics or religion – though both surely have earned our disdain more than usual lately, I also mean how we treat the next person we encounter.
The stranger on the phone might be a wrong number or giving us a meaningful message.
The person on the street corner is likely not an idiot searching for his village nor a great philosopher hiding in plain sight – but we’ll never know if we don’t engage, listen, and learn. Everyone on earth should, in my view, operate according to their decision on one fundamental point:
Are we in this together, or are we in this alone?
Trial by media is similar, but you have to change the channel, listen to the opposing talking heads as they shill for ratings, pander to advertisers – and then decide who you feel is most credible. It’s not scientific. It’s not logical. It’s a media popularity contest. Newspapers serve a similar purpose, but you need to invest more time and get ink on your fingers.
Opinion polls are interesting too – because results are derived from questions you haven’t seen asked by call-center workers of people you don’t know in places you’ve never been, being interrupted at supper time; published results of those who didn’t decline or hang up are then rolled up into data you are then fed to us in sound-byte and distorted graphs packages to tell you what you think.
Pick any jurisdiction, issue, or day – it seems to work this way. We can move.
Or go for a walk in the park.
Or, switch channels.
Or choose OFF.
Challenging enough to make decisions when so many people we don’t have any connection with are telling us what to think, how to feel, and what to do – they’ll happily tell you what judgement to come to, what point of view to have – they’ll tell which blogs and podcasts to sign-up for, which networks to watch, and which party to vote for. Yes, pick your country, local, regional or national – that’s politics du jour, information and opinion spread du jour, propaganda du jour.
If you don’t know what you believe, just pick any channel aligned with your espoused philosophy, hear those talking heads; talk-radio is Sirius business. They’ll tell you what to think, who to trust, which oracles to heed, and which ones to dismiss …
Not about a party or religion; not about fact vs. fiction – but truth isn’t something you create by rhetoric as seen through the rearview mirror. It’s about facts, not trial by media and decision by opinion poll.
Rushing to judgement, a common knee-jerk reaction for so many – genuflecting to whatever just spewed unfiltered from an app or Twitter machine …
Next time you talk to someone for the first time, in person or on the phone, what are you looking for? Do you want signs of pleasantries or high ideals? Do you want someone to know, like, and trust?