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.