'The whole world's mad but me and thee ... and I'm not so sure about thee.'
I started BookLoons a quarter of a century ago as we embarked on a new millennium. Now, our 2025 world has turned topsy turvy ... higgledy-piggledy ... in a state of total economic confusion ... just plain upside down. How did we get here?
In a 2008 Editorial, The Sinister Side of Perception Management, I quoted Abraham Lincoln who said 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.' Does that still hold in this Post-Truth ??? era?
In hope of gaining understanding, I dived into Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Harari tells us that Democracy is based on Lincoln's principle, but that government control of the media undermines his logic, 'because it prevents citizens from realizing the truth.'
The combination of government media control and social media echo chambers that reward acceptance of 'alternative facts' are corroding the foundations of democracies worldwide.
As a Boomer, I grew up in the shadow of two World Wars, when governments were still dealing with their losses and costs. Then came the 60s when youth focused our attention on the dangers looming over and ahead of us - the Bomb, new wars, the environment, and the population explosion. Are they not still all priorities?
Not it seems for the populist regimes erupting everywhere, most recently in the United States of America. They deny global warming as wildfires rage; push for higher fertility as the population explodes; pay lip service to nuclear disarmament; and offer deals to war criminals in plays for peace. Great has turned sharply to Greed and Democracy to regressive Autocracy.
Truth used to matter. Now it's muddled but, as X-Files' Mulder told us 'the truth is still out there.'
Apply critical thinking, learn how to avoid lapping up the misinformation and disinformation that abounds in social media (and some mainstream media), and teach your children to do the same. Then vote while you still can.
We are in topsy turvy times but we can still right them ... elbows up!!
Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons.
