Time for Reality
Lately I feel like information is coming at me at the speed of a ball machine turned up to the “rapid fire” setting. With all this information, I’m not sure if I should be thrilled that my brain obviously should be getting bigger from all this knowledge or worried about my head exploding from confusion and information overload. It’s a fact that never in the history of the world have we had such a high level of information available to us through libraries, print media, news media and digitally using the Internet. Along with this access to information, never in the history of the world have we had such a high level of literacy. In the entire world, over 80% of people 15 years or older can read and in many countries the literacy rate is in the high 90% range. That’s fantastic – just think of all the great things that can be accomplished in the world! Am I sensing you’re feeling a little skeptical about that last statement? Me too. Although access to information can be hugely beneficial to the world, unfortunately not all the information we read or hear is truthful or even factual which can be extremely dangerous. It’s amazing how many people believe what their political, religious, business, and academic leaders say, what they hear on cable news channels, or what they see on social media, without any fact checking whatsoever.
Now is the time to stop blindly believing what our authority and influential leaders tell us. Albert Einstein once said, “Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
Blindly believing in anything can be dangerous. As humans, we have the ability to question – it’s what gives us knowledge and intelligence. We should always question. Question everything – question motives, question truthfulness and question validity. In other words, engage our critical thinking skills. As a word of caution however, if we only selectively engage in critical thinking about ideas we don’t like or for which we disagree, that’s not critical thinking! Yes – questioning everything means everything!
In the past, the education system wasn’t always known for fostering critical thinking skills. In my case, I was taught that intelligence was based on the ability to remember and repeat, an accurate memory and repetition was rewarded, non-compliance was punished and above all, truth came from authority. That didn’t leave much room for critical thinking. It’s no wonder that there are many people today who hold onto myths and superstitions they were taught as children by authority figures without doing any research to confirm if these beliefs are even real. However, by using the reading skills we have obtained and using the legitimate information available to us, the truthfulness of these myths and propaganda can be uncovered. It just requires a critical thinking mind and a little effort. I’ve often heard it said that the greatest thing you can teach a child is how to research and think critically for themselves.
One of the questions we need to ask ourselves is have our various cultures programed us not to question or think critically about very important beliefs, both spiritual and political. I tie these two beliefs together because most of our spiritual beliefs across all cultures were originated and reinforced by leaders pursuing political and military power thousands of years ago. Overtime, many of these spiritual beliefs were thought to be based on factual legends or stories and therefore indisputable. These beliefs only got stronger over time as they were verbally passed down from their parents and influential relatives and friends who got it from their parents and so on and so on. However, when you look at when and where these beliefs originated, it was at a time when the majority of people could not read and had no access to information. At this time period, only the wealthiest were educated and literate. Yet, as literacy rates increased and information became readily available, very few people questioned these beliefs concerning life and death and how to behave properly in society. The power of fear by threatening eternal damnation was a very powerful tool, which has worked to control the thinking of the majority of our population for thousands of years. Very few people have questioned or were courageous enough to question if any of these beliefs were based on reality or just the imagination of the powerful leaders during the time period they were originated.
This is one of the main reasons why now more than ever is the time for determining what is real, what is imaginary, and what is unknown. For thousands of years, we have been programed across the entire world in all cultures to blindly believe what our ancestors have told us. This needs to stop before it leads to more authoritarian forms of government, which includes theocracies. These forms of government result in losses of freedom and often cause brutal human rights violationAs responsible members of today’s society, we not only need to question what we believe and why, but also question what we hear or see in the news, both digitally and on television and even from friends and family. The first step starts with checking to see if what we read or heard is accurate by fact checking. On a positive note, reputable news outlets such as the Associated Press and Reuters have units of people fact checking current news information. There are also websites that specialize in offering fact checking for both political and non-political topics. It’s important, however, to make sure the sources we select are legitimate as well as pursue different points of view. Without taking a more open minded and broader view, it sometimes can be easy to find fallacious support for what we have already chosen to believe. For example, if I suspect that a story is a false conspiracy theory and then use conspiracy theory websites for my research, this is not a good way to pursue the truth. Instead, we need to ask questions as to the legitimacy of our topic and evaluate the various results we get as to their authenticity. The way to approach this is to begin thinking critically about what we believe and what we are being exposed to by the news and social media. Typical questions to ask are who benefits from this point of view? Is it to gain power or increase revenue? We know that negative news sells better than positive news, are we being played? Unfortunately, the answer is often yes!
Approximately half the people in the United States actually get their news from social media according to a Pew Research study and this so-called “news” has not been fact checked or created by ethical journalists. In fact, this news is often created as disinformation or propaganda to inflict discord and division in countries over time for destructive reasons, to increase political power, or for profit. A recent study published in the Nature Human Behavior Journals on March 16, 2023 found that negative terms drive the click through rate significantly more than positive terms, which of course results in more revenue for social media companies. In addition, negativity drives online news consumption driving revenue for these companies as well. Although this study was just completed, the news media and journalists already knew this to be true as one of their sayings was “If it bleeds it leads”. In other words, if there is violence, conflict, or death involved in a story then it gets top billing. This saying originated way back in the late 1890’s by William Randolph Hearst and this understanding of human behavior helped him build his media empire. Unfortunately, human nature is drawn to negativity. This negative bias influences people’s consumption of on-line content, cable news, and shock jock radio programs which is why misinformation, fake news, conspiracy theories, and propaganda have proliferated. It sells! Capitalizing on this human behavior has been very lucrative for these organizations and individuals. They seem to have no problem with rationalizing bad moral and ethical behavior in the process. The reason why these programs are often government or economic related is that negativity seems to work best at driving viewer and listeners with these topics. The sad thing is we are all made out to be gullible, saps, or suckers by these people and organizations including religions. I don’t know about you, but when someone or a group takes advantage of me and makes me feel stupid or a fool, I don’t like it.
So how do we fight back? Once you know you are being manipulated by social media, news media, politicians, business leaders, and religions you can begin to counteract all this fear, anger, and negative messaging by reducing your exposure to it, which I know is hard since its all around us. The next step is to employ your brain to think more critically about what you are seeing or hearing by asking yourself questions. One critical thinking approach is to ask six questions to get at the root cause of a problem or to understand the truth. An example is: Is the information presented accurate/real or is it false/imaginary? What are the reasons someone or an organization might be providing skewed information to further their cause? Could negative or skewed information just be subversive to grow discourse and anger in the population? Are the people generating this information just mentally ill or inherently cruel? Is the information trying to make you become more fearful so leaders can control your actions or companies can sell you more products? Have the causes of these fears been exaggerated and do they need to be examined with facts and real statistical data?
Our world has become more complex but our access to information and our ability to read and think independently has never been higher in the history of the world. We must take control of the narrative by being critical thinkers and reducing the influence of negative information and subsequent control of our leaders across all disciplines. We need to stop being naïve and gullible and fight back with our intellect, otherwise we will lapse back into authoritarianism and our freedoms will be lost. Now is the time for reality!