"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
I certainly agree with the sentiment, but at the same time the sentence shows how loosely the word "truth" can be used. Those aren't truths, they're aspirational goals. Declarations of intent. Political philosophy.
I mean, if they were indeed truths, things that are always so, we wouldn't see rights getting alienated so often these days, would we?
The trick, of course, is to distinguish what we want to be so from what truly is. What is factual, what is provable, and what hasn't yet been disproved. Those can be relied on to reach good decisions. Wishful thinking? I wish.
Faith is fine and beliefs are understandable, but consider this. People or companies with significant wealth almost always have accountants to keep track of their assets. Those accountants are hired because their employers trust them to do good work.
But do you expect those employers not to employ auditors? Faith only goes so far, and trust can become tenuous. Discovering the truth is best.
Let me add that historians, biographers, and, for that matter, responsible journalists aren't the only ones trying to discover what really happened or what's going on. It's an honorable endeavor. All ages can engage.
So here's my advice. Sorry if it comes across as a bit blunt, but I'm a bit bothered that I need to point all this out:
1. Rely on Those Who Must Be Accurate
- You can trust the wire services more than most information sources, because they mostly sell their material to other media, and that's less likely to happen if their work is inaccurate.
- Likewise, you can trust medical authorities who have to worry about malpractice suits more than anyone who doesn't.
- "Truth in advertising" doesn't go very far, and free speech allows liars a lot of freedom.
Find sources who can't afford inaccuracy.
2. Avoid Wishful Thinking If you want to sit around and speculate, be my guest. "Wouldn't it be great if…?" is harmless, as long as you don't base your decisions on it. Because, yeah, it would be great. If.
3. Don't Trust, Do Verify As much as you might wish to just trust a podcaster or somebody, don't. Don't put your faith in me either. Don't go trusting a single source, even one with a background and reputation for accuracy. (I do have one, and I put more than thirty years into getting it. That doesn't mean I'm always right. No one is.) Verification is work, but do it anyway. Find multiple sources who, as previously noted, Must Be Accurate. Then start testing their conclusions.
4. Learn Some Science Understanding the scientific method will take you far, especially if you apply it.
5. Read Some History For readable historians who try to avoid bias, try Barbara Tuchman or David Halberstam. Maybe Cornelius Ryan. (You can also read the biography I wrote, which I don't profit from, thanks.) You can keep going from there. (If you absolutely, positively can't get yourself to a library, as a last resort go to history entries on Wikipedia and go on to the entries' sources.)
I'd recommend more authors, but every time I learned a new language (and other times as well), I'd go devour a bunch of histories to learn about the country and culture. But I read so many, one after another, that I didn't and don't remember the authors, drat it!
In any case, if you know some history, you know some of the mistakes humans have already made, and some of the wrong thinking they've engaged in. That helps keep us from repeating them.
5a. Note that #5 doesn't say Watch Historical Videos. Read. You'll learn to spot bias and evasion a lot more from reading than watching. (I have a book I've read three times over the years that's a history of the Taney era of the Supreme Court. It's readable and thoughtful. After the second time through—and reading a lot of other books besides—I realized the author was trying to rehabilitate Chief Justice Taney, the man behind the dreadful debacle of the Dred Scott Decision. The author had a point, in that Taney was pretty good at jurisprudence, and only had the one truly terrible decision. At the same time, Taney was a Jacksonian through and through, with the limitations that come with that. And he did come up with a horrendous, society-damaging decision. Rehabilitation is largely unattainable with Taney.)
It takes time and effort before you'll be able to pick up on what any author may be trying to do. But being able to do so is absolutely worth that time and effort.
6. Flip the Issue on Its Head There's nothing wrong with considering the opposite viewpoint, but even better, try reversing the issue. If a businessman proposes taking a chainsaw to the federal government, is that any better than the government proposing to take a chainsaw to businesses? If a president says they deserve not to have further elections, that brings up all sorts of entitlement issues. ("Deserve" is a dangerous word.) But that aside, flip the question over. How did that president get in office anyway? Don't future candidates "deserve" their own chances?
7. Last one: Check Credentials Would you hire someone without a contracting license to put an addition on a house you owned? Would you go to the barber to get a tooth pulled like people did a century or two ago? Even for a president who stocks his cabinet with people lacking any expertise in the areas they're overseeing, consider credentials. When that president has a medical problem, does he go to the free clinic? When he's in court, does he use someone fresh out of law school? Think about it.
I wrote a whole series of articles on critical thinking, beginning by examining what distinguishes facts from opinions from theories from beliefs. They're in my free ebook Parallel Worlds and Skew (named after this blog) (which you'll probably need to create an account to read or download), http://self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0100749959-Parallel-Worlds-and-Skew--Essays-and-Reflections-Essays-and-Reflections-by-Johnson-Kevin-Wade.aspx? (I don't gain anything from you reading or downloading that book, either.) If you want to know more, that's a starting point.
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