Day 2,585 —All the Thing I don’t Know and Doing Your own Research— with a PICTURE of a SUNRISE

I am a big believer in people reading about things for themselves like I have, so they can obtain an informed position on any topic; however, I no longer believe that is really practical. To clarify when I am talking about “doing your own research,” I mean read books by experts on the topic. I do not mean that you should go out in the field and conduct experiments yourself. I never thought that’s what most people meant when they said, “do your own research,” but a recent academic that wrote a book on this topic differs. 

I can and have read books about many topics from experts in the field. I don’t think that this is an impossible thing to do; however, I have rarely spoken to anyone who actually does this. Even people that I know went to school and do read, only seek out things to read to continue to validate their viewpoint. 

I don’t have an answer to this problem, which is probably why I was thinking about it when I was running. I am still listening to this book about President Grant, and he writes about how southerners immediately after the Civil War, started rewriting the history of the war. That propaganda that was written then is still prevalent and misinforming people all over the world today. I work with a history teacher that feels fully convinced that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery and other lies that continue to fester in our culture. 

When most people are confronted with not knowing much about a topic, they either seek no new information about the topic, or only consume information about the topic that validate their currently held beliefs. How can truth ever win out in this system?