I’m Obstinate, Cynical, Jaded – I Want Facts
I no longer participate in the routine of the daily news. It probably sounds crass, but I try to avoid the 24-hour repetition of emotional turmoil from humanity’s worst – no more weekly murders, monthly missing persons, annual mass shootings; no summer wildfires, fall hurricanes, winter storms, or spring floods. No more unmitigated disasters. No more listening to ignorant TV or blog personalities passing judgment on politicians and celebrities while knowing little to nothing about nearly everything.
When I do on rare occasion happen to listen in, as it were, to the TV news I’m usually appalled at how little information they provide. It’s all news bites and appealing to their viewers baser emotions. Facts don’t garner viewers, sensational activities do. Why do you think fires are always a big story? They’re easy, immediate, visceral – typically a gut punch, local tragedy. Nothing cerebral here. The pictures tell the story. Nothing more be said.
Having been a subject of previous news bites, I have a keen understanding of how little journalists know about what they pretend to know. Conjecture is their specialty; facts are secondary to rumor; character assassination is gleefully pursued.
American social theorist Thomas Sowell wrote, “The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer – and they don’t want explanations that do not give them that.”
Most people feed on emotion. They live for it; life without emotion is not living. Thrill seekers, drama queens, daredevils; malcontents, hero worshippers, wimps. Every last one a seeker of emotions, a denier of facts, of truths. But truly having a grip on life means not only recognizing and appreciating your emotions, but possessing a rational capability to know and accept facts, especially when they don’t go your way.
When they demand you stand up and be counted, when they require you to do the hard thing, when hard work, sweat, tears, and persistence are not enough, that’s when the discipline of facts must be recognized and championed to solve problems, when rational critical thinking ensures the right thing is done for the benefit of others.
Teaching all this begins at a young age. When a child gets it wrong they need to be told it’s not okay. They need to know high standards exist for a reason. Those standards demand your best. That’s how you give the world what it deserves and ironically, how you come to feel your best. Children need to be shown why the slope of easy forgiveness is slippery, how it leads to mediocrity, disappointment, dissatisfaction – the emotional consequences of not developing the discipline to rationally evaluate facts. Failure to keep trying is everlasting. Failure becomes acceptable, disciplined thought an extravagance, emotional reaction the norm to reaching erroneous conclusions. A spiral of descent, instead of a ladder of ascent.
Courage is a trait based on emotion. The courage to recognize and abide by facts is a mainstay of wisdom. Emotions alone rarely guide us to wise decisions. They have the capability to temper our conclusions and outcomes with sympathy and consideration, but it is the combination of commitment guided by facts that realize wise and lasting solutions.
Every decision is an emotional one, for we cannot divest our feelings from evaluating anything. Either we feel excited or disappointed, happy or sad, agreeable or angry. But it should be the honest evaluation of the facts that get us to those stages, not stories or rumors. My eighth grade science teacher annunciated a truth about observation I carry with me. He said, “Believe none of what you hear, some of what you read, and half of what you see.” It doesn’t matter where he found those words. They are wise, ones we should constantly keep in mind as we read our news, watch our pundits, and follow our politicians. Most of the time, they do not speak the truth.
Which brings us to what can the truth be. These days, it depends upon one’s perspective, and in particular, one’s emotional attachment to an argument and the talking points it espouses. If we examine them, those talking points are typically not based on fact, but emotional assertions from subjective observation.
Finding the truth must be based upon a discipline of open mindedness; a willingness to be surprised by a result of cause and effect and not to shape a conclusion with a desire or expectation. Open mindedness and fairness, guided by truth, fact and discipline. We should all strive for that.
