Wary of information

People in our society primarily fall into four categories: those who believe wholesale, those who reject wholesale, those who show no concern or care and those who chew before they swallow.

The latter are a tiny minority.

We live in the information age. Knowledge is being produced and disseminated like never before in human history.

To a great extent, this is a blessing.

Because of the sophisticated research and investigative tools at our disposal, we know much about ourselves and about the world.

The numerous advances and breakthroughs mankind made in many realms and spheres, from biology to astronomy, to history and ecology, not only bettered the lives of many of us but also strengthened our position as Homo sapiens on the planet.

The good news is that there is much reliable information coming our way as a result of the hard work of disciplined scientists and scholars who are committed to knowledge at any expense.

But there is also bad news, for not all information we come across via the so many communication devices and information venues is reliable, and not all those who produce and disseminate it are committed to the truth. Much of the information produced and disseminated is tricky, suspect, deceptive; at times it is entirely falsified.

For many, such as the countless media outlets that have sprung up in our lives in an unprecedented manner, information has become a commodity. They trade with it in order to earn a living. It is their bread and better.

And in the rush to get it to readers, very few care to check the facts. Reliability takes the back seat, and thrill, sensationalism and even deception prevail.

Information is much like commercials, explicitly depicting a rosy picture but implicitly aiming to influence regardless of the facts.

And it is like commodities in the food market. There is much that is quality and healthy, but much that is pure junk, contaminated and harmful.

In addition to financial gain as an aim (many media outlets are essentially business ventures), there are also politics.

The many media outlets that we rely on for news about our world are either governmental, and thus represent regime/party lines of thought, or private, and thus represent the thoughts and ideologies of interest groups and propagators of sorts.

In our part of the world, all major “private” media outlets — we have learned at a huge cost — are actually owned and managed by highly politicised governments, many with suspect schemes and designs.

There is, therefore, simply no objectivity, truth or reliability in much of what we hear and see.

What adds insult to injury is that both our educational system and our modern-day culture put us at a huge disadvantage in this context.

Far from enabling individuals in our society to become critical, intelligent readers, our educational system makes many of them victims of information opportunists.

Because of its emphasis on rote learning and neglect of critical, analytical skills, it cripples the ability of many to think and question, and prepares them to either swallow information wholesale or reject it wholesale.

This is why many of us feel that both our educational system and our culture are complicit in this sphere of information chaos and deception.

And because of all of this, and of many other considerations, we have to be wary of information. Never take things at face value.