The end of books

I'm currently very disillusioned with books because I have realized that anyone can publish one, and that the things you might read in one book are, almost definitely, contradicted in 100s of others. The daily responsibility of filtering truth from myself is overwhelming enough - add to it an information flow attacking me through innocent BOOKS and I may very well drown. :)

Of course it's not just books - ideas and information come in many ways. But the fact that I can find a book to reinforce any worldview or opinion of mine is a little disconcerting. What is truth!? And who can we believe to point us toward it?

Here is a tremendously fascinating Washington Post article about Blue Media and Red Media. In a nutshell, Republicans like FOX and Democrats divide their attention between CNN and NPR. Haha. Not super surprising. But hopefully you DO find it super disconcerting. Choosing news sources that reinforce your current views seems strange and unhelpful for the person with an open mind. On the other hand, we select our sources on a constant basis - who we spend time with, what places we visit, which companies we buy from, etc.

In a world where we choose the news source that is most compatible with our status quo beliefs, do we have more freedom or less? Does that bring us closer to truth or further away?

Personally, I am finding that the subjectivity is where it's at. I'm having more and more of a sense of awe at our intuition. Now don't get freaked out - I'm not necessarily saying all the answers are within me or within you. But in a way, they are. All I have is my own mind and my own conscience to tell me what's good and right and true. In a way, I also have a very loving community to help me with this, but honestly, they don't agree on most matters of contention.

I guess that, for deciding what's true, the other thing I rely on is getting out into "the real world" and gathering empirical evidence - what do I see? But even then, my choice of going into the ghetto to see the real world may be opposed to your idea of going into New York's financial district where, in your perspective, "real life" happens. So even then, even if we could agree on a common circumstance that portrays reality, we have to use our minds, feelings, intution, conscience, etc. to gather and sort information about reality. We will still come to different conclusions. Even if we could get so far as to agree about truth and reality, the way we emphasize different things - by how much we love certain things, how much time and concern we devote to them - this will also show that what we believe to be TRUE, or most true, differs greatly.

Sigh. Life in the year 2006. You asked for it; you got it - Americaaaaaaaa. lol

What's true?

Two interesting things in my inbox today:

Urban Word of the Day
www.urbandictionary.com

August 08, 2006:
wikiality
Reality as decided on by majority rule.

Based off [wikipedia]'s 'majority rule' fact.
Featured on [The Colbert Report] July 31, 2006.

Wikiality refers to the changing of reality or truth via a Wikipedia-like system, allowing the public to change facts as long as there are others that agree.

and

The international news agency Reuters has withdrawn a photo of Beirut following an air attack after American bloggers pointed out "blatant evidence of manipulation." Reuters admitted that the photo had been doctored to make it appear that the city was more damaged than it actually was. You can click here to see the picture ...

I'm fascinated by all things related to citizen journalism, blogging, and the democratization of information... because it relates directly to truth, perceptions, and reality. I mean, isn't it crazy-interesting that truth is becoming such a fluid concept? Maybe it always has been. And do we need to protect it? Can we?

Maybe if I go to grad school someday I will study this. If I had to say what I'm most passionate about, it's probably helping people around the world have a better quality of life through art and technology. That's why I get as excited about people blogging their experience and interpretation of events as I do about kids doing competitive ballroom dancing or learning to play an instrument or sing. They're all vehicles to hope, I think, and there's real life along the way.