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Too much information can be a bad thing

To the editor:

When I went into Louie’s the other day, I found out that Ken, our house Democrat, was out of town, so there wasn’t the usual argument about Trump. Everybody was in a relaxed mood, just hoping for a few laughs.

Jack was there. He’s a good guy, who doesn’t come in too often. Today he was all worked up, nursing a stiff drink and looking agitated. Then his cork popped. “Why do we have all these factions?” he said. “We’re all divided into little groups – MeToo, Antifa, BLM, liberals, conservatives, libertarians, RINOs. How are we ever going to get things done when we’re all fractured like this?”

We all turned to look at him. Then Hal said to him, “You’re suffering from I.O.”

“From what?” said Jack.

“I.O. – Information Overload. A serious disease. But at least you’ve recognized that the symptoms might be worth taking to a doctor. A lot of people live with them without realizing that they’re bad for you.”

Jack looked puzzled. Hal went on. “Think about it: are you personally bothered by Antifa people or Libertarians?”

“No,” admitted Jack.

“Good,” laughed Hal. “Then you’ve taken the first step toward a cure.”

“Are you telling me I shouldn’t be worried about the rest of the world?” asked Jack, with a little warmth.

“No,” said Hal. “I mean you should keep things in proportion. Anything about people you can see or hear should be more important to you than anything you get from the media. From personal experience, I know that the media can amplify or even create bad news.

“Now listen carefully to Dr. Hal here, because I’m going to help you. You don’t even have to lie down on a couch; just listen. Within the last few years we’ve all been able to listen to anyone in the world instantaneously. This sort of thing has happened, on a smaller scale, only once before, on the invention of the printing press. What happened? Everybody was able to have their own Bible for the first time. People were able to print religious tracts with different opinions. The Christian church was fractured, with wars of religion lasting hundreds of years.

“I think we’re going through the same sort of thing now, with anyone able to post opinions about government, the media, ethnic or gender groups or anything. Everybody’s an expert, which creates an unprecedented opportunity for conflicting opinions and controversy. The printing press helped to break the Church’s monopoly on authoritative opinion, and the internet and phones are breaking the government and media’s prominence in opinion. I don’t have a clue as to how this will end up. It could be catastrophic, but I’m enough of an optimist to think we’ll adjust to it somehow.”

Ted broke in. “The real problem is that with hearing all the conflicts and disasters all over the world all the time, your attention to what’s going on around you locally becomes less and less, where perhaps things aren’t all that bad.”

Then Eddie joined in as the room warmed up on this. “History gives you a context for what’s going on around you. Take climate change, for instance. I’ll admit some of it may be man-made, but how many kids know that the Sahara Desert was once a sea or that North America was once covered by a sheet of ice?”

“Yeah, we all think that political fights are worse than ever.” This was Jerry, chiming in. “Does anyone know that John Quincy Adams called Jefferson a ‘slur upon the moral government of the world’? That Jackson said, ‘I regret I didn’t shoot Henry Clay’? Or that Lincoln was called, among other things, ‘a braggart, a buffoon, a perjurer, and a tyrant’? (That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) “

Now you couldn’t stop the history lessons. Tom said, “Are you worried about the FBI being politicized for the first time? Forget about it: If you still believe the Warren Commission Report, I’ll sell you a bridge.”

I couldn’t resist jumping in. “I go over to Penn State a lot now. When the kids break between classes, all you see is thousands of them walking around, glued to their phones like zombies. Something tells me that’s not right.”

Mike spoke up. “I’ll tell you something. My wife and I just had a teenager as a guest at our house for a couple of days, a really nice kid. Quiet, polite, intensely curious about his surroundings. Knew his family history in great detail. Guess what? He never watches TV and has no phone. That tells me something.”

“Let me sum up my house call,” said Hal. “We’re mostly college guys and getting on, so we remember when colleges spent a lot of time on history instead of gender studies and all that. We know that over time there are great variations in natural and human behavior, with good and bad consequences. In that respect we’re lucky, not like today’s kids who spend all their time with Facebook ‘likes’ and all that crap, thinking that every day should be a nice day. They think that if something different happens, it’s the end of the world and somebody’s fault.”

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose,” said Mike. “That’s French.”

“I know it’s French, wise guy,” said Tom. “What does it mean?”

“Look it up,” laughed Mike.

“I know what it means,” murmured Louie.

John Brittain

Lewistown

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