Sheep

I've been thinking about free will. Not the grand metaphysical kind. I don't really care about that. There's nothing I can do to change that. Whether all of my actions are determined by fate or whether I can choose my own destiny, either way there's nothing I can do that will make it the other way. No the free will that I have been considering is on a much more intimate scale. I'm talking about manipulation. There is a interesting trend in our society, at least it seems to me, to praise free thought and open discourse. And even to pretend that we have those things. But just because you think you are assessing the facts yourself, coming up with your own analysis of them, and making your own opinions does not mean that you are. I would argue the exact opposite. The more you think you are doing these things the less likely it is that you really are. It is very difficult, in a society like ours, where the money flows freely, to really get all of the facts. Now I'm not saying it's any easier in any other type of society. I haven't lived in any other type of society, so I really can't judge anything other than what we have. But just think on this: in order for any type of research study to be done it has to get funding. Where does this funding come from? It comes from people who are interesting in knowing the results of the study. And why are they interested? It tends to be the case that those interested in the results also have a vested interest in a specific conclusion being reached. Now it doesn't really matter how unbiased the scientists are. The scientists doing the research can have absolutely no bias, but the study will still be biased. This is because the people funding the research will pick and choose researchers who happen to be finding evidence to support the interested party's conclusion. The end consumer never gets all of the facts. It would be impossible to relay all of them. That is why we rely on intermediaries, the media, to pick and choose the important facts. The problem comes when we delude ourselves into thinking that we are the ones making informed decisions. It is not possible to make a truly informed decision when you do not have all of the facts. So what should we do you might ask? Most people do not have the time and/or knowledge to research all of the facts for every decision they might have to make or every conclusion they may have to come to. But some people do. That is why the media was created in the first place. What we need to do is accept the media and allow it to fulfill its purpose. In this modern age of the internet and all that stuff, everyone wants to think that just because they can write out an opinion means that they can make a truly informed decision. That is what I am protesting in this essay. I think the only truly informed decision to make in this day and age is to not try and make your own decisions. There are people out there who spend all of their time studying and researching things in order to make informed opinions, and they are perfectly willing to share those opinions. Find someone who you trust to make truly informed opinions, and then trust them. To use a metaphor, the majority of our society are sheep, who have been suckered into believing that they are shepherds by the real shepherds who have found that it is easier to control the sheep by creating this illusion. But there really are some good shepherds out there. So I have decided to accept that I am a sheep. I don't want the responsibility of being a shepherd. I can accept the fact that I just don't have the initiative to make truly informed decisions for myself. So I have made what seems to me the only logical decision. I have decided to consciously be a 'sheep' and have found a 'shepherd' that I trust to make informed conclusions and I will be relying on her judgments from now on. This shepherd is Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now. Of course I reserve the right to decide later that this was a bad idea, but for now it seems like the right course of action. I must point out that this is mainly in regards to politics, the economy, and other things related to those. I will still be making my own opinions regarding personal matters like music, food, etc because I feel that I can make informed decisions about those things on my own. So I guess this is sort of a call to action. Wake up from your delusions and either start making truly informed decision, opinions, and conclusions, or find someone you trust to make them for you. Stop pretending that you can keep yourself truly informed in your spare time. You can't. Staying informed is a full time job, and even then some people can't do it. Ok, that is all.