On … Sources
Following up on Logic…
Not only is elementary propaganda as effective as ever on our population, we’re backsliding on our collective ability to weigh the relative merits of information. Gossip, like other pathogens, thrives on human populations. We all remember from elementary school how messages get twisted in a round of Gossip, the game; we’d do well to be a bit skeptical of everything we hear.
Science and philosophy use the term “first principles” to fundamental assumptions that can’t be derived from others. Still, they’re assumptions–and can be proven incorrect or incomplete over time. Researchers weigh information by its “source” level; primary sources are far more valuable than secondary ones, secondary sources are always verified multiple times, and even then are second-class. Sourcing is an inexact science, to be sure, but useful as a primary filter for any communications we receive.
Journalism pays attention to sourcing in theory, but is often (usually, historically speaking?) corrupted by corporate or other vested interests. If one is actively using electronic media these days, you’re usually in the realm of tertiary sources; as the name implies, the equivalent of gossip in the amount of influence one should give it. Perhaps it has developed innocently enough, given the quest to fill 24 hours a day on so many channels; after all, how much is there to say that’s truly news? A survey of multiple channels over a couple of days reveals the Gossip game at play; people repeating each other’s “happy talk” until they all come to the same “conventional wisdom.”
It’s up to you, the consumers of information, to demand better quality of your suppliers. Challenging as many of your own assumptions as possible–let alone information items heard–is hard, requires diligence, and asking “how do you know that?” repeatedly may be downright dangerous around some people, but it’s got to be done. Anything that’s real will bear the scrutiny.