Editorial: Too Much Information, Too Little Truth

I'm amazed at the power of Internet-based communication tools to be both value-neutral (indeed, possibly content-neutral) and self-perpetuating.  I'm amused at how perfectly natural it is considered for us all, it seems, to build our personal brand using Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.  I know whereof I speak--after all, that's why you're reading this!  I watched the TV news Friday night (a relatively rare event) and noted with interest that a fellow blogger was quoted as the source for a story about the selection of Milwaukee's new Roman Catholic Archbishop.  What a crazy collision of the ultimate top-down organization--which has, amazingly, been able to entrench its centralized authority and reassert its command-and-control nature since the 1960s--with the bottom-up world of blogs. 

For the good of humanity, I hope we will be able to discover (or rediscover) a middle way.  Let's not abandon the idea of authority, but let's also not accept everything that's handed down from above and lose the gains made since the 1960s towards participatory democracy.  Please don't interpret this as a religiously bigoted statement, but in my view, the Vatican is a human government that is no more or less morally valid than any others.  I admire many, many things about the Roman Catholic church--a fact I've been meaning to blog about for some time--but also think she has lost the thread since Jesus' day, to put it mildly.  I would level the same criticism at most Christian churches.

This must all seem a bit far afield, but I think a basic problem is that we've allowed ourselves to become way too dumbed down, particularly in our reading and writing level and ability to communicate.  Language is power, and no one understands that better than the Vatican.  Big words are power.  The powers that be--big brother, little brothers, and lots of people who just want to sell us useless junk--use language to confuse, contort and connive.  If we can't analyze and scrutinize the information we take in, we become defenseless against it.

These days, getting up every morning and seeking to impose a stamp of order and meaning on life is the very definition of an uphill battle.  The goal of trying to turn one's information intake from meaningless bits of disconnected information into a coherent narrative seems almost impossible.  However, I believe that it's a worthwhile and necessary pursuit.  After all, if we don't do it for ourselves, someone else will--someone who is likely to be as far away from our wants, needs and best interests as Rome is from Milwaukee.   

Comments

[Michael Miller]

Incidentally, I went to Mass at Old St. Mary's this morning and really enjoyed it. I will be back. Here is a follow-up link that is an encouraging sign: http://www.milwalliance.org/index.htm