By Dr. Bruce Smith ——Bio and Archives--November 13, 2023
HeartlandLifestyles | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
Over many years of teaching and advising students, I often used less elegant language to give them this adage: One of the most important choices we make in our lives is who to listen to.
As kids we don’t have much choice. We heard often that we should mind our mothers and listen to our elders. It’s a good concept, but not without its dangers. As kids we really are in no position to know better, and the younger we are the less likely we are to be able to choose wisely. We have no choice, really, at a young age but to hope that we get the guidance we need from the right people. When there are examples of malevolent parents we must not let those cases sour us on the concept. After all, turning kids over to the state is a choice with less favorable odds.
It’s the old ‘bad crowd’ argument. If we hang out with people who indulge in dangerous and unhealthy behaviors, then we likely have chosen to take their advice on a number of things. People with better goals in life, people who want to be virtuous, and people who seek to make their lives and the lives of others better are a better group to listen to. Of course, to our unsophisticated young minds the virtuous crowd might seem boring, but I’d argue that it beats dying in loathsome ways before reaching the voting age.
As we age a bit, we must take on the responsibility of checking our sources of information and advice thoroughly. We need good advice at every stage of our lives. I’ve known people who thought they had nothing further to learn from anybody, and that usually doesn’t end well. Most of them never learned anything from others at any stage of their lives. Call it narcissism or just arrogance, it reminds us that we can’t possibly know it all. In our own areas of expertise we feel more confident, but as time passes it can’t hurt to consult others who might have had experiences we missed.
The adult version of this topic is that we need to check and verify our sources of information. Advice doesn’t have to be spoken. Consulting reliable sources beyond our narrow view can only help broaden and improve our perspective.
If we seek the truth, it takes time to verify sources. Sometimes friends will send me links to sources they like. I look at these and consider them for a while. There’s usually a pattern. Some sites will scoop a story while others will notify me a week after it happened. Opportunities to zoom in on truth don’t come along every day. When they do, they can be checked against the stories from other sites. A site’s political ideology can be a good sign, but the ideology must be sound. Like learning someone’s ideological affiliation, discovering what they consider reliable sources is a shortcut to knowing what they think and what they value.
A site that deals in hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and phony stories even now and then cannot be trusted. Networks or news sites that make a sport of gotcha in the middle of a debate cannot be trusted. Once trust has been lost, and once their reputation has been called into question, it takes many years of top notch reporting to get that reputation back. News sources that lose their way rarely find it again. This is because they don’t lose their way accidentally. They reveal their true colors when they think it’s justified or when people aren’t looking. Some sites post a variety of stories from all kinds of sources, good and bad. That’s the best way to compare and learn. In these days of naked power grabs and the weaponization of law enforcement, there’s lots to watch for.
When preparing for a debate, we must research both/all sides. To focus reading only on sources we agree with is to expose ourselves to unpleasant wake up calls.
Support Canada Free Press
If you know both sides, you won’t be blindsided, but if you only know one side, you’re a prisoner of ignorance. If you know only one side, you become aware of the speeding bus when the bus hits you, because you were only looking one way.
We should make it a habit to see and really hear what other sides are saying, if only for the entertainment value it affords.
I can often spot people who are narrowly focused or don’t bother to periodically re-examine their sources, to check veracity, because I’ll mention something that is an every day concern of many people, but they’ll say they’ve never heard of it. This doesn’t apply to new terms or new popular culture figures because these things take time to spread throughout the culture. I’m talking about something that has been a major concern among a significant segment of the population for some time.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m never the first person to discover anything. It pays to spend some time scanning the news horizon so the next tidal wave doesn’t surprise us. I try very hard not to be the last person to discover things, either.
We should listen because we need to hear truth with perspective. We can find truth in a few places, but it’s easier to find sources that deliver what we want to hear. Seek sources that do not fear speaking the truth, uncomfortable though it may be. Strive to develop a point of view based on truth. If the truth consistently contradicts your point of view, it might be time to look over the point of view. It’s not a sin to develop a better perspective over time. In fact, it’s a good sign that we’re keeping an open mind.
What is the basis for accepting information as authentic and true? Do we seek sources with a track record for wisdom? Is it experience that guides them? Is it skillful research by a solid staff? Is it the power they wield? “They’re the biggest news organization in the world. They must be right.” Ever fall for that one? Me, too, but no more. When Cronkite came back from Vietnam after the Tet offensive and told the country we had lost, it was an example of hubris his reputation never recovered from. Many others have followed the same path.
How to decide whether information is authentic and true? Do we look to individuals or organizations with influence to tell us what to believe? There are plenty of influential people in politics, but it’s a rare few that earn my trust and manage to keep it for long.
Do we look to sources with solid knowledge and respect for our institutions and for the Constitution? Beware those who dismiss the founding documents as “outdated” and “inflexible” in today’s complex world. Education does not ensure truth. It’s wisdom we seek as evidence of learning, not mere degrees and titles. Do we look to sources that can admit being wrong sometimes? We should.
A wide variety of organizations and individuals spout information for consumption by others. There is good information and flawed. There are lies. There is propaganda. There are stories that are too good to be true, and some that are too phony to be believed. There are stories full of assertions and full of omissions. There are sources that can’t pass the smell test. Learn to tell the difference. As we identify the good and the bad, perform the careful categorization to help remember which is which. I like to keep my best sources at the top of my news bookmarks. They change now and then because they’re always under scrutiny from me.
Expect to be part of a small crowd when seeking the truth. Many people don’t want any part of it but would rather stay comfortable in their narrow focus. These days there’s a widespread effort to dismiss and ignore people with different points of view. I like to think I work very hard to avoid being one of those people.
View Comments
Dr. Bruce Smith (Inkwell, Hearth and Plow) is a retired professor of history and a lifelong observer of politics and world events. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to writing, he works as a caretaker and handyman. His non-fiction book The War Comes to Plum Street, about daily life in the 1930s and during World War II, may be ordered from Indiana University Press.