I’m sure no sooner had some prehistoric Bill Gates type first observed what happened when you rubbed two sticks together than the world divided itself into what we today call glass half-full and glass half-empty types. The former would stress the fact that "we can now keep warm and make food taste better;” the latter would worry about their house burning down and how they were going to treat all the village idiots who insisted no government was going to take away their right to stick their hands in the flames.
These days we are waking up to the fact that the computer age has brought a similar test of intelligence. There are those who see the internet as a huge leap forward in spreading information. And those who understand that for every soul it lifts out of provincialism and ignorance it also provides an opportunity to listen to more deceptive politicians or TV evangelists than ever before, more opportunity to exhibit what, if you like to use fancy-talk, you might label epistemic incapacity. You might also prefer the more down-home term, bullshit.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Specifically, it deals with the difference between verifiable fact and arbitrary opinion based on a desire to mold reality according to one’s desires. History records Gutenberg's invention of the printing press as a great-leap-forward moment in history. It downplays the fact that we now had a mechanism for spreading misinformation and prejudice. Martin Luther made Germans literate by translating the Bible and making priests redundant. But he also helped foster the anti-Semitism that was out and about in Germany at the time. Then it was the printed word; these days it's the spoken word delivered through television and computer, that is the primary mixed blessing of the age. It can inform and educate, but it can also misinform and deceive, if you don’t have the basic capacity to tell the difference between accurate information and bullshit. Like fire, it is not a solution to all our problems, but a tool that requires discipline and training to use properly.
Over the past four years, we’ve reeled in shock at how often Americans have ignored outrageous deception on the part of our political leaders - Trump in particular, but the problem was never limited to one person. And now that the majority of Americans have thrown the bum out, we are still faced with daily evidence of just how dumbed down the population has become. I’m thinking of such things as the resistance to wearing masks in the face of Covid-19.
I love that Steven Weinberg quote: “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” And I would amend that to include not just evil but also rank stupidity. In many Christian churches people drink communion wine from the same chalice. In the Greek Orthodox Church, they use a spoon, and, even in the midst of the Corona pandemic, traditionalists are arguing that God would not want us to alter the practice. And will keep us safe.
Americans are no smarter and no dumber than the rest of the world, of course. In Germany the new rightist party, the AfD (Alternative for Germany), are fighting over whether to get behind the national “Mundschutz” (i.e., “mouth protection”) policy. Never mind that the protection they’re arguing over should cover the nose as well as the mouth. The fact that virtually any medical authority anywhere will tell you the risk of spreading infection is lowered considerably by its use. This is not an issue we should be wasting our time arguing over.
I understand that there is a debate over whether the high cost of these protection measures, masking and physical distancing, is too big a price to pay. People who see up close the damage done to people living in isolation, the damage to kids who can’t get out to go to school or play with their friends, the risk of bankrupting countless businesses, are making good sense. It’s a judgment call whether to prioritize the health of the economy and psychological well-being over people’s individual lives, particularly the old and the physically compromised. I see it as a moral issue. For me lives come first, but I understand there are lots of people out there who don’t feel any obligation to protect the general public, and no doubt assume taking their chances is a reasonable course of action. And we have to live with these people.
I just wish we had better mechanisms to expose the sources of misinformation effectively. I admit I don’t know how to do it. Some urge patient interaction and the need to communicate effectively and not surrender to righteous indignation. I feel a responsibility to move in that direction. But I find it so damned hard. It’s bad enough at normal times to have to listen to people who believe in astrology and make decisions on the basis of Tarot cards. But these are life-and-death times, and when you find people listening to known liars and self-serving politicians, isn’t it irresponsible to go on about the importance of the “free exchange of information?”
I’m currently going through all the lectures, debates and panel discussions I can find over this fascinating man, Jordan Peterson, and trying to decide whether his “free speech” stance makes him heroic or just another fool who doesn’t know how to use his nose to smell the coffee. I’m not on the fence. I’m for free speech, and I buy his argument that responsibility is central and we can’t run a democracy without maximizing the uninhibited flow of information, and that we can’t let our personal assessment of the accuracy of that information distract us.
But it’s hard. Super hard to suffer fools when lives are at stake.
I welcome anyone who wants to contribute to the discussions I’ve been having with friends on this issue of free speech to chime in. Please don’t just simply declare you’re for free speech. Please tell me why, at this particular time, in the midst of plague, we can’t do anything about the bullshit. Other than continue to put in our two cents, I mean.
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