You may recall this scene from Spike Lee’s movie, “Do The Right Thing”:
Officer Long: “Who were the punks?”
Da Mayor: “Those who’ll tell don’t know. Those who know won’t tell.”
Fortunately for us, unlike Officer Long, we don’t have to rely on a single source to find things out.
Abundant deposits of information, and its distant cousin knowledge, are within easy reach for anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. I marvel at the speed with which I can find answers to my questions with only a few clicks of the mouse. Not too long ago, harvesting information was a much more onerous task that required library research and a working knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System.
The major drawback, of course, is that anyone can post anything on the Internet. This means that the information that we gather must go through a good deal of sifting before we can feel confident about its accuracy. Despite this drawback, the Internet remains an amazing tool for enabling the exchanging of ideas.
With everything that we ever wanted to know about anything just waiting to be discovered, how can it be that so many people are misinformed? I don’t make this claim as a matter of opinion. Oh, no. Examples of misinformation, disinformation, and just plain old stinking thinking are everywhere:
- The notion that any corporation is too big to fail;
- The exaggerated estimates of the looming Swine Flu pandemic;
- The many conspiracy theories: 9/11 was an inside job; we never landed on the moon; Elvis lives; etc.;
- The question of Obama’s real citizenship;
- Death Panels;
- Homosexuality is a choice.
Pick any one of these and I’d wager that a significant percentage of the US population believes it to be true. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there are some folks who believe them all.
How can this be happening during this era of information availability?
I suggest that the answer to this question has little to do with the information that is out there and mostly to do with how we choose to use it.
Author Bio:
Ray Colon has written 136 posts on Ray's Blog.
He works with numbers for a living, but don't judge - boring accountants need love too. His blog has no niche (unless writing about things that are important to him is a niche). Some folks cringe when he gets “all political” on them, but he does it anyway when he's in that kind of mood. Sometimes, he writes something nice about someone, but you shouldn't get used to that. His first book, the one he hasn't written yet, is not available on Amazon. Subscribe to Ray's Blog via RSS or Email.
