“A popular Government, without popular information is but a Prologue to a Farce”
Founder’s Quote
Here’s the full quote for some context:
“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” — James Madison (Letter to W. T. Barry, 1833)
A “Prologue to a Farce”. That really stood out to me. If we have a bunch of false beliefs about the nature of reality — a bunch of knowledge that just ain’t so — then we will make decisions that don’t line up with reality. But why would we have a bunch of incorrect knowledge? Well, the internet can be in part to blame.
With an open platform to publish and distribute information open to anyone who wants to do so, it can be easy to see how quickly untrue statements make it around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on. Especially if the untrue statements confirm what we already believe to be true. But why don’t we just “do our research” and find out what is actually true? Well, that may not always help.
This article in The Washington Post discusses a study that posits our inclinations to find what confirms the false things we already believe as opposed to uncovering the truth when doing internet searches. The term, “Do your research.”, may be popular and common sensical, but the source of that “research” is what yields the results of that research and the source can be dubious.
The article mentions this as a right of center problem with issues like what happens with QAnon but it goes both ways. Just this week Google was caught changing its definition of “bloodbath” after former President Trump used it in reference to an economic battle with China. And even after networks like CNN used this term for economic battles in their own past headlines, they framed it just like their colleagues at the NYT and NPR did: as a threat by Trump that his loss in 2024 would mean some kind of bloody civil war.
Another effect of this problem I have noticed is the infantilization of the public to only “trust the experts.” People who post things like “No, don’t do your own research!” because you don’t know what you’re doing, will themselves defer to whomever they call experts, but usually only the experts who, like their internet searches, already tell them what they believed in the first place.
The worst public display of this was during Ketanji Brown’s confirmation hearing where she was asked to define “woman”. Now it’s totally warranted to get annoyed at the question during a hearing to confirm our Supreme Court hopeful, but in the context of a nation that is putting laws on the books or in institutional policy that is confused about the answer and its implications, I understood why it was asked. Her answer was that she was not a biologist, so she couldn’t provide an answer.
Really? A brilliant woman on her way to the highest court in the land couldn’t answer that? The very basic framework of our survival as a species that is reflected in the manner in how all of humanity frames the universe and you don’t know what that is? Yes, she absolutely does. But this is a display of the effect of dubious information on the internet and the idea that now only experts are able to tell us what the truth is. Another interesting thing is that some leftists still were upset with her because apparently the biology experts had sex wrong: It’s only a social construct created to maintain power over women. So next time she should defer to Queer Theorists as to who she should direct that question. Even Katanji couldn’t win that game, so how the hell are common Americans supposed to navigate this minefield?
This is what happens when our information is so diluted. But what to do? Should we shut down the internet? Or highly regulate it? But then who regulates it and gets the power to create, verify and distribute that information? Not likely those who you want to have that power and once they have the power, they will unlikely yield it. Ever. Or at least without a bloodbath.
I for sure don’t have an answer. But what I personally have found helpful is patience and purposeful skepticism. Whenever a story comes out, especially one that makes me feel vindicated in my previously held beliefs, I try to pay attention to my reaction. If I really like it, I slow down. Well, I suppose it goes both ways. If I really hate it, I slow down too. Just think back to all of the “facts” we were told about Covid and how they turned out to be often just made up.
There’s no evidence for masking stopping the spread, and even though the vaccine is great at reducing severe illness and death, it doesn’t stop the spread and was never tested to do so. The idea that standing six feet apart was completely arbitrary and had no evidence behind it. Those plexiglass barriers turned out to reduce the flow of air and increase the chances of infection. Even though you could get your social media account shut down for saying the virus came from a lab in China, it is now considered the best explanation for what happened. We’re even now unsure of what exactly happened to George Floyd even though millions across the world were willing to destroy their cities based on the popular narrative. Nobody killed on January 6th was killed by any of the protestors. And this was just in the past few years!
No wonder free floating anxiety remains like a cloud over our nation.
Another helpful tool is to read, especially old books like the one I pulled the above quote from. I’ve noticed a sort of sobriety and temperance in the books I read about history that were written several decades ago. They don’t feel like they are trying to convince or persuade, but simply inform. There’s a sense of humility as well. And maybe that is a big part of the difference: humility and a desire to educate as opposed to a desire to persuade or convince.
People who have faith in the truth — a belief that truth is good and should always be pursued and revealed regardless of our understanding of its effects — understand this concept. In an increasing secular society, the idea of faith in anything is subsumed by the idea that human reason is the penultimate tool in the universe. So of course our ability to persuade and convince would rise to the top of our aims. There’s nothing humble about that at all.
I wonder what James Madison would say today. I wonder how he would react to an internet search on himself.
"I wonder what James Madison would say today. I wonder how he would react to an internet search on himself."
First Google result: Problematic colonizer