It turns out the truth may not set you free.
Sad, but I've known this for years.
There's a book I read many years ago, Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change. In it the authors posited a very interesting hypothesis, information disease.
I wrote an an essay on it a couple of years ago.
It could be said everyone suffers from information disease in some form. There's simply too much information in existence and we haven't the time to go through it all. And information disease is hard to treat.
Still, as the Washington Post article pointed out, the truth isn't completely without effect.
We should be aware that it isn't the cure all we believe it to be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Where do I begin? Insightful post, BTW. I suppose I'll start with the idea of myths, misconceptions, and the inability of the masses to assimilate new/correct information. This is something I learned through experience, and it is frighteningly true. This is also why each person's perception is different. We are not blank slates! Any information entering the brain is tempered and altered by related, existing information (schemata). The brain requires time to assimilate or accommodate facts. Misconceptions and myths can only be challenged when the person is in a state of cognitive dissonance (when beliefs and values clash with reality - this requires basic ability to think independently and logically), a state of being unachievable by many. Also, our beliefs and values develop over time, and are stored in long term memory, while new information, including facts, are stored in short term memory. Short term memory information that does not coincide with long term information (beliefs that we already have) is discarded. Long story short, it stands to reason that people have difficulty internalizing truth when myths have become part of their belief system. Keep up the good work!
Post a Comment