For Your Information

I have read several articles recently that hail the democratization made possible by the Internet – and the almost endless access to information that it brings to any and all who want it.  This got me thinking.   Always a dangerous thing!

I just finished reading Ken Follett’s World Without End. While this highly entertaining book is fiction, it is set against a reasonably accurate backdrop of England in the Middle Ages.  Those wonderful days when the princes of the realm joined forces with the princes of the church to keep the rest of the population in various states of ignorance, serfdom, slavery, and often, abject poverty.  For sure, some physical force was used to keep the masses in line.  But, the masses were also “kept in their places” through the enforcement of ignorance and the substitution of superstition and fear for real knowledge.

This technique proved so successful that it was still in use at the time of the U. S. Civil War, as a way to help keep slaves “down on the farm”.  Indeed, it was illegal in many states to allow a slave to learn to read or write for fear that they be harder to deal with if educated.

Soon after, an increasing demand for literate workers, coupled with a general rise in prosperity, and universal, state-sponsored education (in the West at least) seemed to put these days behind us.  So we thought.

Now, reflect with me again, back to the Middle Ages.  Suppose that these people had had easy and open access to whatever information they desired.  Would that have made much of a difference?  My certain answer is NO, it would not.  Why?   Isn’t it a long accepted truism that “information is power”?  Maybe, but, this simple truism assumes that those with access to information are able to process it — to use it in some beneficial way.  This is too often not the case.

Put in a far more simple fashion, imagine I take my dog to the library.  Now, I know that dogs cannot read so I put ole Rover in a room where books on tape are constantly playing.  Books on every subject imaginable.  Now, I ask you — how long must this continue before Rover becomes quite improved by this exposure to information?  For my part, I suspect he never will for the simple reason that, no matter how much information I hurl at him, Rover has no capacity to process most of it.  Dogs are simply not made this way.  But humans supposedly are.  Yet, as we can plainly see all around us, far too many people will not take advantage of this ability.  Indeed, in my insignificant life, I have observed that the only real difference between cannot and will not is the degree of self-inflicted tragedy involved.  The final outcome is virtually always the same.

So here were are, back in real time with this amazing facility we call the Internet, bringing a universe of information to the screen in front of us, yet a large percentage of our population can’t make change without a cash register figuring it for them, can’t find Canada on a world map, and haven’t a clue where their senators and congresspeople stand on vital issues (assuming then even have a hint who these people are).  A population that increasing believes that government can give them something it did not first take from them and/or a fellow citizen, that government can somehow shield them from the outcome their own dysfunctional behavior.  Forget the more sophisticated demands of liberty and self governance such as a basic understanding of economics and of the intended operation of our government.

Whether it be by intent or by accident, the “dumbing down” of the West, particularly America, is shaping up to be one of the great tragedies of human history, in the potential it has to set the human condition back to that of the Middle Ages.

Lately we see a lot of programs telling us of the potential for disaster should that rogue asteroid hit, should Yellowstone blow its top, should the ice caps melt.  Yet, when did you last see a program predicting the outcome of the very real disaster we are all participating in, to one degree or another?  No, Political Correctness demands that we ignore it, that we deny it.

As an aside, am I the only one who has noticed that the worldwide rise of fundamental religious power and activity seems to track in parallel with the dumbing down of the average person?  How can I avoid the notion that we are headed straight back to the Middle Ages when mankind is working so hard to move backward?

As a parting thought, have many of you ever noticed how long and hard it can be to get someplace yet how fast and easy it can be to go back to where you were?

I suggest you polish your lance and start going to jousting practice.

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