We are being told by “experts” what to eat, how to speak, what the majority of people think and what we should think. Have we ever been bombarded with so much polling data? (Maybe someone should poll that?) All this data gathered and interpreted by “experts” is supposed to put us on the right path. To where I don’t know. But what I do know is that it is time for us to start doing our own thinking and our own research. If we don’t we may end up at a destination we do not want to be at.
We can listen to the supposed experts and pundits, but we should look into where they get their facts. The familiar “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” is tossed about freely, but can we actually separate fact from opinion? There are so many studies, polls and surveys these days. Who conducted the information gathering is as important as who is in the sample being questioned. Anyone who understands how polling and surveys are conducted knows that the sample is critical. The phrasing of the question is important too. If the results turn out to be different than what was anticipated, the poll can be scrapped and redone with perhaps a new sample and newly phrased questions. When the desired results are in they are made public for all the like-minded “experts” to use as fact to back their position. Opinion is now on the road to becoming fact.
So how are we to know what is fact and what is opinion? Maybe that is not so important. Maybe we should focus more on what we think. We can formulate our opinions based on facts we have gathered. What do our friends, family and those in our local communities we respect think? We can gather some of our own “data” by speaking to each other and listening to what others are saying firsthand instead of relying on the “experts” to interpret speeches and comments made by politicians and others for us.
Learning history is also important. That brings to mind the familiar Orwellian notion, “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”
So studying history is another area where we have to do our own homework carefully. Pay attention to who has written or researched the history being studied. Read books and articles by many different authors and historians who are at varying points on the political spectrum and from a variety of life experiences. This will give a fuller fountain of facts from which to form our own opinions. We might then be considered an “expert” by some, worthy of being followed onto the path we have determined to be the right one.
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read her new blog series “Statues: The People They Salute” and visit the Facebook Page.
Is this a great country, or what?
No longer is it necessary to have a PhD in a single narrow discipline to be considered a recognized expert when it comes to political BS.
What’s the matter PAULO, afraid for people to think for themselves? That is all the author is saying and that puts a scare in the Socialists/Marxists in DC and the Liberal media, doesn’t it? I agree with her whole hearted that polls are manipulated and then put to the masses as fact. She is NOT claiming to be an EXPERT on anything, she is just stating people need to find out the facts themselves instead of blindly believing what the polls are stating. What is wrong with that?
I really loooove the part in your comment about “single narrow discipline”. AND you’re not? Really???
Here’s a polling question I would like to see asked … How many people think President Obama lies every time he opens his mouth? … Answer: I predict … between 90-100% of the time!
Excellent article!
Diana, can I pick on you, just for fun?
You probably remember that I cannot spell, but still have some grammatical skills that haven’t totally vacated.
Where you said, “…we may end up at a destination we do not want to be at.” you could have ended without that last word “at” without losing meaning. (By the way, did that period after “at” need to be within the quote? Just asking).
Also, in “If the results turn out to be different than…”, wouldn’t it have been proper to have said “different from,” instead?
Otherwise, a good job. Surveys have always been a bone of contention with me, since in university it’s the undergrads who do the questioning, and when they get tired, they tend to fake results so as not to have to spend all that time and effort to gather what really is often just nonsense.
RIK had a point about the Erbio and Bila articles not making it into the weekly. That’s a shame, since you actually make more sense than many of those whose contributions do make it in.
Thanks for your efforts and keep it up, please.
We are nearing the end phase of a planned ‘transformation’ . Starting forty years ago, students were taught that feelings always trumped reason. Feelings were honest, thought was subject to inner censorship. In other words, the communist influenced teachers encouraged an end run around conscience, that nasty obstacle put there by the ultimate bring down, God. Feelings were now sacred. If you feel something strongly enough it must be true. With this cunning method, millions have been conditioned to immediately accept the flow of emotion laden urges as implicit truth. Do you doubt? Witness the enormous popularity of the ‘Grey’ books and film among women. These aren’t about sex on the beach after being rescued from a pirate ship, but involve acts that would have been ‘vetoed’ by the inner censor… Before. Now it’s after. Ah, but this is old news. Now, the very notion of truth and Reality itself are…. whatever you feel them to be, as long as you really, really feel them to be… whatever. It changes. Like, you know, a study or a poll makes me feel validated, so it must be real. Why have they been so wildly successful? Because they threw open the door to the basement and said; ‘do what thou wilt’. The only price they required for this ‘freedom’ was that they would be in charge of what is truth and reality. So we needn’t be surprised that facts don’t matter and that obvious fictions are accepted, one fiction this moment and another the next with no contradiction apparent.
There are no experts, just overeducated idiots that believe they are.
“Learning history is also important. That brings to mind the familiar Orwellian notion, “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”” This is the most important part of the whole article. We are a nation that has now produced two generations of people in the last 40 to 50 years, who for the most part, are largely completely ignorant of both our national, as well as world history. In essence, a significant portion of the population has been systemically dumbed-down to where they are now open to surrendering their futures for the false promises of some Utopian society based on socialism. The result of which is that we are now on course to repeat the mistakes of Argentina, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Germany, Russia, China, and a host of other countries that in the past openly adopted and in many cases willfully embraced socialism / communism under the misguided view that it would result in some better societal outcome for their people. What all the populations of these countries learned however, was that all they received for all the “social justice” and “economic fairness” was grinding poverty, rampant inflation, shortages of everything and a massive lowering of their population’s standard of living and life spans. All while their personal freedoms evaporated.
Time grows very short for this country, as the transformation process will be fully complete in less than five years at the current pace. Plan accordingly, if the majority of voters make another massively bad choice in 2016. Elections have consequences and this may very well be the last one where you will have any say in this country’s future.
This reminds me of the 1960s and the politicians and their bureaucrats with their “best and brightest” that allowed the Viet Nam war to be lost from micromanaging idiots that had elite scrolls form elite universities and that had no clue as to how the Free world actually worked. The communist leanings from the elite schools favored the rise of communism. It began with the early ancient philosophers of the Greeks, Romans and others with their utopian societies. Then the likes of a homeless philosopher named Karl Marx and his Communist Manifesto (mid 1800s) began the modern day ideology. For the next several decades (late 1800s), the communist ideology festered among the culturally elite “cottage industry” and the “enlightened” socialist. Next was the Russian Revolution where V Lenin and his cultural socialist elites formed the former USSR (1920). In the 1940s, a fella named Joe McCarthy with the help of the FBI, had a list of some 300+ known communist within our fed bureaucracy. FDR, Truman and even Ike refused to acknowledge the list. Evidently J Stalin had them in his pocket. When JFK, a stanch anti communist, took over, they had him and several of his cabinet murdered (1963). Eventually, most of the commies were either fired, quit or were reassigned. LBJ, a hard core socialist, took over and created the “Great Society” programs (1966) that were the beginning of the end of the America we once knew. Now, the feds are loaded with communist and their socialistic programs are on steroids. The US of A will surely become the USSA if the hard working Patriotic Americans don’t respond in force the next voting cycle, 2016, and counter the damage that has been inflicted on our Constitution. US Navy veteran, 1966-1970; Hospitalman, FMF Corpsman “Doc”; the “Big E” (CVN-65), USS Repose (AH-16), USS Lexington (CVA/S/T-16); God Bless America, the most Exceptional Nation on the face of the Earth, and don’t you forget it: Anchors Aweigh, Semper Fi, Ooorah
These experts and politicians are creating the path for the crazy people who feel the need to commit hate crimes to get even. The real shame is killing innocent people that think as they do . if they get rid of the agitators maybe the nuts will stop coming out of the wood work.
I would like to see all those old sore heads off of the Supreme Court also, Obama out of office on his to never never land Those senators and congresmaen to get out and find another job. A job that don’t requjire a NBackbone, because they sure don’t have one. I wish the speaker of the house and oe Biden get out of the country. Before Obama gets out of office we won’ have a counrtyr. We won’t be no better than Russia or Syria.
I would like to see those judges that wasn’t supposed to vote off of the Supreme Court. Those Senators and Congressmen need to get out and find something else to do. They need to find a job that don’t require a backbone. They sure don’t need to be in Washington. Its a pity that we have such sorry leaders. They need to get Joe Biden out also. He is just as sorry as the rest of them. I can’t believe Lindsey Graham. He has never uttered a word about the Confederate flag until he announced that he is running for president. I will ot vote for him ever again. It makes me ill to think I voted for him in the last election. I expected that of Tim Scott.They are all out for “number one.”they all speak with a forked tongue..
No middle class civilization has long survived mass tertiary education. We’re graduating hordes of nobodies who want to be somebody, good for nothing except swelling the ranks of government employees.
Longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer:
‘The explosive component in the contemporary scene is not the clamor of the masses but the self-righteous claims of a multitude of graduates from schools and universities. This army of scribes is clamoring for a society in which planning, regulation, and supervision are paramount and the prerogative of the educated. They hanker for the scribe’s golden age, for a return to something like the scribe-dominated societies of ancient Egypt, China, and Europe of the Middle Ages. There is little doubt that the present trend in the new and renovated countries toward social regimentation stems partly from the need to create adequate employment for a large number of scribes. And since the tempo of the production of the literate is continually increasing, the prospect is of ever-swelling bureaucracies.’
At age 81, I’ve lived through most of the expanding dictatorships mentioned in the preceding responses, and remember them pretty well. I cut my teeth on Conservatism reading Barry Goldwater’s ”Conscience of a Conservative” and as neighborhood chairman for Barry Goldwater. It’s my belief that a great many neo-conservatives believe that Conservatives believe that everyone should think and behave according to their own convictions.
It’s my personal view, however, that true Conservatism means what it meant 60 years ago, eg: “Conservatives read the Constitution ‘conservatively’, i.e.: to mean precisely what it says; and that Liberals believe it is flexible, meaning that we need to re-interpret it as society’s values change in accord to what they believe the Founding Fathers had in mind.” (or how they, the Liberals, wish it actually read).
Thinking along (what I believe to be Constitutional) in the above sense, it seems to me to be reasonable that the Founding Fathers were freshly aware of what”s needed to deal with a tyrant government, hence the 2nd Amendment thereby aligning myself with the neo-conservatives in that sense. We should be able to own guns, period; as many as we want, period. However, I can’t really believe it also means we should have open-carry of guns by students in elementary, junior high, high school, or even college campuses. (This comment is only intended to reflect on what “TOTAL Freedom” under the 2nd Amendment might mean.)
However, I’m not able to side with the neo-cons who thought the City of New York should refuse to issue a building permit for a Muslim Mosque in that city, near ground zero, on the basis that it was “offensive” to people, and might lead to a dangerous situation there. I agree that it wasn’t a smart idea, and almost seemed to be defiant to the locals and people visiting what we all believe is sacred ground… But many of the same people who opposed it are highly supportive of our Christians attempting to minister in Muslim nations… Where’s the logic? Our Constitution guarantees religious freedom; most of the Arab nations don’t… period. In each case, it’s the Law of the Land, and, at least in my view, it needs to be obeyed, unless a person is willing to accept the penalties for disobeying the laws of the country they’re in (a la Ghandi).
The Constitution itself recognizes that there may be questions of legal interpretation involving its meaning, and designates the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbiter. If we genuinely believe the Court’s’ interpretations to be wrong, and if enough people share that conviction, then there needs to be a Constitutional amendment to that effect. I haven’t always agreed with the Court, either… But if we are genuinely Conservative, and we read the Constitution to mean what it says, I believe we must abide by the Court’s decisions unless and until the Constitution is amended, period.
I realize, and expect, I’ll draw fire and even some hate mail for the above views. That’s OK. As I said, I’m 81, with a very clear memory of the world before, during, and after WW II. My Dad was a pilot for he Army Air Corps; and I paid my dues. I’m a Marine veteran of the Korean War who volunteered largely because it was the right thing to do. And right now, I think the right thing to do is to dissent with some of the dissenters. After all, it’s my right.
May God forever bless the USA and all who have served, are serving, and will serve.
Very Old Marine
its all part of obamas agenda21{new world order}add that almost all politicans do nothing but go along to get along.look if you had a job doing very little,and no accountability ripping off the legal american taxpayers monies,and even if they get caught what happens to them not much.the longer we allow this ineligible unconstitituional usurp to remain in office,the longer this treason will go on.add open borders sanctuary cities,obamacare is a tax no taxation without representation and its unconstitituional.the government should not be in the business of selling we the people, a product obamacare.add the ex attn general eric{I,m in contempt of court}holder.and the new attn general lorretta lynch who like holder believes illegals{means against the law}aliens have a right to work and be in the usa wrong.and with pre-k and common core,so these politicans can indoctrainate young children into becomming good little goose stepping brown shirts at an early age.also with muslum training camps in dearborn michigan maine minnesota upstate ny near hancock.and in dallas where the 4 muslum lied and said they where lawyers,to bring in there muslum tribunal,and in irving where the muslums tryed to intimidate the city council so they could bring in there muslum sharia garbage.add the iran deal and fast and furious where border guard brian terry was killed by guns from this failed policy.remember any unconstitituional laws or not laws,and that we the people our the real government.read the books the muslum mafia and adios america.and walter lippmanns public opinion.and no one can give or take away an unalienable right,it is god given.the second amendment/bill of rights/constitituion is my firearms permit.god bless all legal american veterans/citizens
I am very impressed by Diana Erbio’s understanding of the issues that we face as she demonstrates through her articles. She gets it. The problem is that too many people do not get it nor will they because our “mainstream media” and public “education” will not provide them with this understanding. Good job Diana !!