Rock-tober 25, 2023

Once on a prior job, I walked into the facility's break room. The TV was tuned to a random news channel and the entire room was empty save for one guy. We were on friendly terms, so I approached his table and noticed he was spooning Metamucil into a glass of water. I was feeling snarky this particular day and was putting a lot of trust in our cordiality. As he acknowledged me with a nod, I pointed to the congealing mixture in the glass and asked this gun-toting Fed, "Problems?"

He laughed it off, "Nope. Doctor's orders. This stuff's supposed to be good at lowering cholesterol."

I was intrigued. With enough relatives and in-laws involved in the medical field, I was curious about the mechanism. The corporate website outlined the benefits of their product, citing various government studies and private papers.

As I started rabbit-holing down all the links of the supporting sites, I noticed something. If I delved deep enough, they all started citing each other, like a crazy self-supporting Escher latticework. Where was the one primal source of truth? It was as if all a premise needed was enough hyperlinks to other sites making the same statement to be deemed true.

I once saw a blurb about a college journalism professor who admonished his class.

"If one source tells you it's raining and another source tells you it's sunny, your job isn't to print them both. Your job is to open the f*ckin' window to see who's lying."

The Internet makes the retrieval of information from mankind's repository of knowledge jaw-droppingly easy, but it's also a potent vector of half-truths and full obfuscations. Finding the truth isn't always as easy as "opening the f*ckin' window".

My five decades of trodding this sod have taught me two things about searching for truth. Don't give up and don't be dogmatic. Mulder was always right, "The truth is out there." And when you find it, you may be surprised if it doesn't align with your worldview. Allow yourself the courtesy of growing into this discovery. Hardcore dogmatism can be truth's bitter enemy.

I think C.S. Lewis's dwarves were more cantankerous than Tolkien's. In Lewis's The Last Battle, a feast was laid out before a group of dwarves. Unfortunately, their jaded worldview prevented them from seeing the obvious truth literally in front of their faces. While the rest of the party beheld a scrumptious feast, all the dwarves allowed themselves to see was pig slop.

A wise doctor once offered an apt description. "They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views."

Richard Ashcroft - Are You Ready?