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...no being has been led to Nirvana.
A conservative talk show host, whose name escapes me because I didn't save the link, has had the courage and the honesty to come out and say what has been increasingly obvious for some time; that it is now impossible, in this Disinformation Age, to say to anyone "These are the facts" and be believed. For every source, there is a counter-source; for every fact-checking site, a conspiracy theory discrediting it. You pays your money and you takes your choice, and there has never been so much wonderful choice when it comes to information.
One commenter's response: "These people do not live in Factland."
I have news for this commenter. Everybody lives in Factland. And nobody lives in Factland.
Factland is the real world, the one that hurts, the one in which people get sick and lose their jobs and their homes and their loved ones. We arrive in it when we are born, we leave it when we die, and there is no other way to leave it. That's on the one hand.
On the other hand, where we all actually live is inside our heads, behind our eyes, between our ears, and Factland can never truly penetrate those barriers. All knowledge is predicated on belief, belief in the reliability of our senses, the validity of our reason, the credibility of the authorities we choose to trust. Where we truly live--whether we are conservative, liberal, socialist, libertarian, green, purple, or whatever--is in a reconstruction of Factland that we create inside our heads, from the information we take in, and in which we believe.
Aaaaaand that, my lovelies, is where it all starts to go horribly wrong.
Because, whereas in earlier times our sources of information were few and trusted, now we have the internet with its wonderful freedom, and desktop publishing software that can make any load of old rubbish look sleek and authoritative, and everybody's doing it. Call yourself the Institute of Confirmation Bias, or ICB for short, knock up a few graphs to prove that employment in southwestern Montana has declined 63.26% since old Missus Henryburke started up her home-made lemonade business, and someone will believe it and quote you on Facebook.
Left-wing journalist Paul Mason has written a book called Postcapitalism, and the Guardian has published what may be an extract, or a summary, or an article on related themes, by the author, here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun
The article is full of studenty handwaving of the kind I deplore ("a new kind of human being" is emerging, according to Mr. Mason. As sf readers, we all know what happens when "a new kind of human being" emerges. We saw it in Midwich.). Apparently the information revolution is going to lead to the abolition of intellectual property (!!!) and a new age of "free time and free stuff." He doesn't go into any details as to how this will work; presumably the book (which, by the way, is not free) will be more enlightening. As it is, there's a good deal of "the left must reshape its policies" and "the left must reinvent itself" and so on, without any hints as to what this process might actually involve. I remember the last time the left reinvented itself. It reinvented itself as the right. I do not want that to happen again.
But Mr Mason makes the same omission as everyone else whose writings in this vein I have read; he seems to be assuming that information is of a consistent value. Information in Factland comes in all colours and shapes, and there is no hallmark, no way to tell from the information itself whether it is true, inaccurate or a pack of utter lies. If information were the currency of this new world (to be fair, he doesn't actually say that it is) then we would have a huge counterfeiting problem before we've even got started. Information, in itself, will not make any positive difference, till we have a touchstone to sort the gold from the dross.
But it's not all waffle. He does say many of the same things I have been saying in my posts about work and democracy, which of course are quite true because I believe them. :) If free market capitalism is truly ending, and if to see the end of it we have to give up the idea that when we write songs or stories people might give us money to hear or read them, then maybe that's a price worth paying for the death of wage slavery and work-or-die ideologies.
Mmmmaybe.
In other news, I am broke till Monday again, and would be grateful for any possible assistance. (EDIT: okay, Worldcon weekend was a stupid time to ask. Sorry. Never mind.)
A conservative talk show host, whose name escapes me because I didn't save the link, has had the courage and the honesty to come out and say what has been increasingly obvious for some time; that it is now impossible, in this Disinformation Age, to say to anyone "These are the facts" and be believed. For every source, there is a counter-source; for every fact-checking site, a conspiracy theory discrediting it. You pays your money and you takes your choice, and there has never been so much wonderful choice when it comes to information.
One commenter's response: "These people do not live in Factland."
I have news for this commenter. Everybody lives in Factland. And nobody lives in Factland.
Factland is the real world, the one that hurts, the one in which people get sick and lose their jobs and their homes and their loved ones. We arrive in it when we are born, we leave it when we die, and there is no other way to leave it. That's on the one hand.
On the other hand, where we all actually live is inside our heads, behind our eyes, between our ears, and Factland can never truly penetrate those barriers. All knowledge is predicated on belief, belief in the reliability of our senses, the validity of our reason, the credibility of the authorities we choose to trust. Where we truly live--whether we are conservative, liberal, socialist, libertarian, green, purple, or whatever--is in a reconstruction of Factland that we create inside our heads, from the information we take in, and in which we believe.
Aaaaaand that, my lovelies, is where it all starts to go horribly wrong.
Because, whereas in earlier times our sources of information were few and trusted, now we have the internet with its wonderful freedom, and desktop publishing software that can make any load of old rubbish look sleek and authoritative, and everybody's doing it. Call yourself the Institute of Confirmation Bias, or ICB for short, knock up a few graphs to prove that employment in southwestern Montana has declined 63.26% since old Missus Henryburke started up her home-made lemonade business, and someone will believe it and quote you on Facebook.
Left-wing journalist Paul Mason has written a book called Postcapitalism, and the Guardian has published what may be an extract, or a summary, or an article on related themes, by the author, here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun
The article is full of studenty handwaving of the kind I deplore ("a new kind of human being" is emerging, according to Mr. Mason. As sf readers, we all know what happens when "a new kind of human being" emerges. We saw it in Midwich.). Apparently the information revolution is going to lead to the abolition of intellectual property (!!!) and a new age of "free time and free stuff." He doesn't go into any details as to how this will work; presumably the book (which, by the way, is not free) will be more enlightening. As it is, there's a good deal of "the left must reshape its policies" and "the left must reinvent itself" and so on, without any hints as to what this process might actually involve. I remember the last time the left reinvented itself. It reinvented itself as the right. I do not want that to happen again.
But Mr Mason makes the same omission as everyone else whose writings in this vein I have read; he seems to be assuming that information is of a consistent value. Information in Factland comes in all colours and shapes, and there is no hallmark, no way to tell from the information itself whether it is true, inaccurate or a pack of utter lies. If information were the currency of this new world (to be fair, he doesn't actually say that it is) then we would have a huge counterfeiting problem before we've even got started. Information, in itself, will not make any positive difference, till we have a touchstone to sort the gold from the dross.
But it's not all waffle. He does say many of the same things I have been saying in my posts about work and democracy, which of course are quite true because I believe them. :) If free market capitalism is truly ending, and if to see the end of it we have to give up the idea that when we write songs or stories people might give us money to hear or read them, then maybe that's a price worth paying for the death of wage slavery and work-or-die ideologies.
Mmmmaybe.
In other news, I am broke till Monday again, and would be grateful for any possible assistance. (EDIT: okay, Worldcon weekend was a stupid time to ask. Sorry. Never mind.)