Nicholas Fulford
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

It’s not that simple.

People spinning many narratives is similar to anarchy, and the uncertainty surrounding it will cause a lot of problems because there is one hell of a lot of trash that finds itself into cyberspace. Now, I am not saying that people should blindly suckle at the media, clerical or congressional teat s— far from it. What people need to do is develop the capacity for critical thought, to do enough investigation of sources that offer differing takes on the same set of events to be able to develop informed opinions. People have to understand their own biases and the propensity to short-shift evidence that does not support their biases and vested interests. It is a natural human tendency to do this, and so it is worth being able to recognize when I am vested or biased for or against a set of evidence or a narrative. That is not an easy thing to do, but it is what people need to do to be able to create valid and truthful worldviews and to form reasoned and reasonable positions.

I am fully aware that most people do not have the time to do primary source research, and that most of us lack the specialized skills and training to do that in many areas, and so I don’t expect people to do that. But I do expect people to be willing and able to go to what are widely regarded as high quality secondary sources — preferably with biases that cross the political and social spectrums — and to discuss the most important issues to arrive at a reasonable view from which to make political, economic and social choices.

Yes, I am asking a lot, and the problem is many — perhaps most — people have neither the will nor the skill to do that. If that makes me sound elitist, so be it, but it is truthful. Instead, those powerful few with vast resources can do deep big data research to find common patterns and tailor market their narratives to hot-button and shepherd people to support them. This then becomes not a battle of ideas and policies, but of the superior marketer with the best deep data analytics to enable targeted propaganda to bring in the votes. That is not a basis for good government with effective public and foreign policies.