This morning I got into a disagreement with my father. I don't know how it even escalated over something so stupid.
I had printed off an article from The Toronto Star regarding the questions surrounding what really happened in regard to the death of Osama bin Laden. The next thing you know there's the statement, "You can't believe anything they say." with the implication that if you do then you're incredibly naive. I replied that if that we're absolutely true then why bother to read newspapers and watch reports and discussions on television? That's when things escalated and I don't even know why.
But setting that aside the question still stands. If one has already made up their mind about something then why continue to read the papers and watch the news? Even as connected as we are, unless we have miraculous access to firsthand information, then why bother otherwise? All we can do is weigh different sources of information, different accounts, opinions, televised accounts, films, books, articles and then try to discern some measure of truth and understanding from that. In the least you should gain some better understanding of how things work in the world and help see through what could otherwise be mere gossip, rumour and misdirection.
Not all information that comes our way and that we have access to can be dismissed as lies and misdirection. You cannot bullshit everyone because you cannot cover everything.
Strangely this ties into something that happened at work recently. A young coworker was dismissed last Monday and the immediate management tried to put a clamp on it. They went around telling most everyone they were not to discuss it. And yet they would not say why this young man was fired. To me this was incredibly shortsighted---what did they think people would do? You cannot order people to shut up and not talk about something about which they have no information, and add to the fact that we're not in a military or government organization. As a consequence rumour and gossip began to spread like wildfire. If they wanted to forestall gossip and rumour then they should just have said, "Whatshisname was dismissed for such cause. Too bad, but thats the way it is." But without any understanding people tried to find clues as to what really happened, if for no other reason beyond some measure of understanding but to avoid making the same mistake this dismissed employee had made.
We all want to understand what's going on around us. It helps us deal with others and helps us navigate our way through the world. In many cases all we have to go on is whatever information comes our way and/or what we're able to learn on our own (assuming you're interested in making the effort). But why bother if you assume everything is meaningless and cannot be trusted?
Yes, most everything in life is not black-and-white and we can learn things that can challenge our preconceptions. But isn't that what learning and understanding is about? And cannot that help us make better decisions in the future?
I had printed off an article from The Toronto Star regarding the questions surrounding what really happened in regard to the death of Osama bin Laden. The next thing you know there's the statement, "You can't believe anything they say." with the implication that if you do then you're incredibly naive. I replied that if that we're absolutely true then why bother to read newspapers and watch reports and discussions on television? That's when things escalated and I don't even know why.
But setting that aside the question still stands. If one has already made up their mind about something then why continue to read the papers and watch the news? Even as connected as we are, unless we have miraculous access to firsthand information, then why bother otherwise? All we can do is weigh different sources of information, different accounts, opinions, televised accounts, films, books, articles and then try to discern some measure of truth and understanding from that. In the least you should gain some better understanding of how things work in the world and help see through what could otherwise be mere gossip, rumour and misdirection.
Not all information that comes our way and that we have access to can be dismissed as lies and misdirection. You cannot bullshit everyone because you cannot cover everything.
Strangely this ties into something that happened at work recently. A young coworker was dismissed last Monday and the immediate management tried to put a clamp on it. They went around telling most everyone they were not to discuss it. And yet they would not say why this young man was fired. To me this was incredibly shortsighted---what did they think people would do? You cannot order people to shut up and not talk about something about which they have no information, and add to the fact that we're not in a military or government organization. As a consequence rumour and gossip began to spread like wildfire. If they wanted to forestall gossip and rumour then they should just have said, "Whatshisname was dismissed for such cause. Too bad, but thats the way it is." But without any understanding people tried to find clues as to what really happened, if for no other reason beyond some measure of understanding but to avoid making the same mistake this dismissed employee had made.
We all want to understand what's going on around us. It helps us deal with others and helps us navigate our way through the world. In many cases all we have to go on is whatever information comes our way and/or what we're able to learn on our own (assuming you're interested in making the effort). But why bother if you assume everything is meaningless and cannot be trusted?
Yes, most everything in life is not black-and-white and we can learn things that can challenge our preconceptions. But isn't that what learning and understanding is about? And cannot that help us make better decisions in the future?
