Fresh Old Ideas
By Arnold Malone
As a child truth seemed assured. Truth appeared to be everywhere. We believed our parents, our teachers, community leaders, the local news outlets, as well as persons of national importance. Then, for the most part, our society lived with a generally agreed set of values and practices. There was the feeling that most citizens knew right from wrong.
The 20th century has brought us many advantages. From indoor toilets to AI generated information. Along with an unending list of achievements we also have some unfortunate disadvantages. Today, the world is just more complicated.
If you are trying to connect with an organization that is big it will be rare that you can ever speak directly with a person.
Over time there has been a huge reduction in trust. Trusting now requires work. Decades ago, when the phone rang there was instant excitement; someone wanted to talk with us. Most of the time we expected that it was from a known friendly person. Now, through phone identification we ponder if this is someone we know or if it is a request for a donation, or worse, a scammer. A phone number gets studied with doubt; do I know this call? Do I even want to pick up?
We order a product on the Internet. The next day an email arrives, “There has been an error in your payment regarding your recent order.” You delete since you believe the message is a scam. Then ponder, “What if that was an actual problem?”
Political language has changed from disagreement on matters of policy to personal attacks. The Washington Post asserts that Donald Trump lied 30,573 times during his presidency for an average of 20.9 lies per day. We now need to question much of what we hear and read.
How many brands of toothpaste can be the “number one” toothpaste recommended by dentists? Then there are all of those products that were “clinically proven” or the ones “that will change your life forever.”
What does a deduction of $15,600 on a new truck mean? Is the company selling at $16,600 below cost; or is the company selling at a profit but actually wanting to charge $16,600 more? The language makes us think there is a bargain but very few really know the meaning. These words are more bate than honest.
Without facts science could not exist. Mathematics seeks absolute answers. The same is true for chemistry and physics. Yet in the social world there are those who speak of “alternative facts” as if such a concept could even exist. There can be a variety of opinions but never a scattering of facts. It is difficult to function as a society when divergent opinions are claimed as facts.
Truth seems to be losing value. If a self-serving statement can be made then too many are willing to forego the good of the community or country. Advertising seems to have a growing gap between the promise and the result. The language seems designed to entice without clarity. Most buyers have no idea what a stansted discount means except it sounds like a bargain.
What appears to be taking place is that people are moving away from being a collective where the common good is an objective. Instead, we seem to be a society where everyone argues for our singular advancement.
If there were more concern for society as a whole there would be a greater possibility that people could disagree without being disagreeable.
With all of our advances we seem to have made the simple more complicated rather than the complicated simple. When wordsmithing is designed to trick, then truth and believability is degraded.
