The Whirlpool and the Current

in #opinion4 years ago

Our current information landscape is more like a tumultuous whirlpool than a calm lake surface.

Swimming in these waters is dangerous, currents of all strengths and in all directions abound. They are currents that easily captivate, drag down and drown.

The Corryvreckan Whirlpool - geograph-2404815-by-Walter-Baxter.jpg
By Walter Baxter, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Its so easy for us in this tumult of opinions to pick sides on any one of the myriad of debates raging around us. Once a side is favored there is more than enough to feed our biases, amplify our initial suspicions and completely polarize us.

Every day unity is lost as popularization grows. The ground grows increasing more fertile for dissension and strife.

The key is to avoid the whirlpools of simplification and myopic thinking. Stick to the calmer, flatter more balanced waters. Most issues are complex and listening only to the most shrill voices will rarely reveal the multifaceted truth.

Sort:  

So beautiful and attractive, but dangerous.