Recently a man I respect very much wrote, in exasperation, “I have looked in vain for a newspaper that reports the news in unbiased fashion.” Oh?
Well, right or wrong, I replied, by email, that this is one quest doomed to failure.
I am an avid newspaper reader – have read newspapers literally all over the world – and have yet to find a newspaper that is NOT biased. I don’t think there is such an animal!
The only way, I think, to get at some semblance of the “truth” is to “triangulate,” by reading/hearing, and understanding, all sides of a substantive issue.
But remember: This is then just a semblance! Keep your mind open, seek to understand differing viewpoints on the same matter, and be ready, if necessary, to change your personal conclusions. (Emerson – he knew everything, right? – said, “Consistency is the hobgoblin of simple minds.”)
But even my own offspring accuse me on occasion of always coming to the same – in other words “rock-ribbed” conclusions."
Maybe. Even probably, sometimes. But, always coming to the same conclusion about something must mean that the conclusion is not right – right?
DBT
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'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.'
ReplyDeleteRalph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)
Unfortunately, as someone else pointed out, Emerson did not offer guidance on distinguishing between foolish and wise flavors of consistency. Thus, this widely-quoted snippet is not as helpful as it might seem.