Hey Everyone!! 😊
Happy Tuesday! Hey, at least it's not Monday anymore, right? 😉 And, to celebrate that lack of Mondayness, I thought it would be a good time to share a little bit of Alyce's wisdom. Enjoy... 😉
"A lot of people work really hard to keep it that way, not to mention the fact that most people in my society are just too exhausted to pay attention to much outside their daily lives."
"Why is that, again?"
"Well, like I said before, most people work really long hours, often at multiple jobs. They're tired and most of them don't have the energy to keep up with the latest outrages on the part of the powers that be, never mind fight back against them. Unless what is being done has a direct effect on them, it's not unusual for working people to just ignore it. Even when they are personally affected, if the consequences aren't too severe or are delayed in any way, they still might not react. A lot of people are too distracted with just trying to survive to pay attention to anything else."
"That's a frightening place for any society to be," observed Squid-boy. "It makes it almost impossible to choose leaders who are worthy of the role."
I laughed. "Well, sugar, you're not the first one to make the argument that we've gotten exactly the kind of government we deserve."
"It seems as though, if people can't even be bothered to react to events and legislation that directly affects them, it would be unreasonable to expect they would concern themselves with things that only affect others," said Yax. "Which means that a particular problem would have to affect a large majority of your population directly before there could be any possibility of action being taken to counter it. So, how is it that you currently have so much civil unrest?"
"That's a good question, darlin', but the answer is…"
"Complicated," the two aliens chorused.
I shrugged. "Yep."
"Does it have anything to do with this next exhibit?" asked Squid-boy as he pointed off towards the far end of the hall.
I followed him over to the display he was talking about. It took me a few minutes of looking at it, but I was finally able to figure out what it was supposed to be. There was a woman robot sitting at a keyboard typing and, periodically, a definition or equation would appear on a screen over her head. These were all obvious truths; things like the equation for how to calculate the radius of a circle given its circumference and the definition of electrical current. Things no sane person could argue with. And yet, there was a group of both male and female robots sitting opposite the woman robot who had their own keyboards. No matter what the woman robot typed or how blindingly obvious it was that it was indisputable fact, the group of robots would invariably respond by typing furiously into their keyboards and the words "Fake News!" would appear on the screen over their heads.
"Err… Sort of. It's kind of related, but not directly."
"Can you explain?" asked Yax.
"Well, this," I gestured at the exhibit, "is one of the ways those in power try to keep regular people divided. They use propaganda to make people believe that the truth isn't the truth and that the people who try to tell them the truth¾like teachers, scientists, and journalists¾are trying to trick them. Educated people are often portrayed in such propaganda as people who are cold, socially awkward, detached from and unsympathetic towards the problems of 'real people', and impractical. This type of propaganda makes some people, mostly those who aren't well-educated themselves, distrust education and those who have it. And it dissuades them from trying to educate themselves."
"And people who are ignorant are easier to control," said Yax.
I nodded. "Exactly. And when people who are well-educated are confronted with people who aren't, and who are suspicious of truths that educated people consider obvious, the educated people tend to regard their less-educated counterparts with derision and even contempt, at times."
"And so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"Yep. And everybody ends up talking and nobody is listening."
"But how can your people argue about provable facts?" objected Squid-boy.
I snorted. "Sugar, I think you'll find that humans can argue about just about anything."
"But words have meaning! You can't just decide something means something that it doesn't or that it doesn't mean something that it does. Facts are facts. They exist independently of belief or approval."
I shrugged. "Sure. But just because something is true and you can prove it to an objectively measurable standard, that doesn't mean that another person can't refuse to look at your evidence or believe that it's real."
"But that's insane!"
"No, it's irrational. But, then, I never claimed that human beings are rational creatures, did I?"
"I think what my colleague is trying to say is that it often seems as if your people argue that reality isn't reality."
I nodded. "Yep, they do. And they argue over what constitutes reality, as well."
The big alien gave me an incredulous expression. "How has your species ever managed to accomplish anything?" he exclaimed.
I laughed. "In fits and starts, mostly."
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