Is ‘the use of reason’ any use in today’s world?
One of the first things I learned in Johnstown school was to do with ‘the use of reason.’ We were taught that ‘the use of reason’; as in knowing the difference between right and wrong, came as part of the package on reaching my 7th birthday. I did wonder at times why, if I wasn’t expected to know right from wrong until I was seven; why then could I get slaps at home and at school while I was still only five or six?
Anyway, on reaching the ripe old wisdom-bestowing age of seven, the priest, the parent, the teacher –and anybody in between; expected us to know what was right and what was wrong. Those were simple times indeed – and by and large, we all did know simple rights from simple wrongs.
But now, more than seven decades later; quite unbelievably, people are struggling to ascertain who and what is right in this crazy world we now live in. Flick from TV news-station to news-station and certainly that parish priest who gave me my First Communion would struggle to answer as to which side of the line falls much of today’s newsy tit bits.
Reversing back to my childhood and how easy it was to digest the news on radio. So much so, that I lapped it up and understood world affairs better than I do now. At 12 years old I could talk to you about Colonial Naaser, Sir Anthony Eden and the Suez Canal crisis. Today I couldn’t tell you who governs Cyprus; but back then I could discuss Archbishop Makarious and Colonial Grivas; and I threw stones at every tank in Budapest during the Hungarian revolution. You see, the news of the day continued into the next day; we had time to think and we all exercised our use of reason and knew which side we should be on.
The news we were fed back then was fact based … more or less. The ‘Irish Press’ was a Fianna Fail newspaper; whilst the ‘Irish Independent’ was said to give the Fine Gael perspective. Our two major political parties represented close to 80% of the population. Here is my point; thanks to the never-wavering integrity of our journalists and the honesty of our newspaper and radio reporters (correct me if I’m wrong) the news of the day was pretty much the same in both papers.
Fast forward to today; where news gathering and reporting is dangerously different from above. Thank God, the higher standards of writing and investigative reporting still prevails in Ireland; but even here, social media has destroyed the news base. There are those who automatically dismiss anything covered in the mainstream newspapers or on RTE. How can anybody apply ‘the use of reason’; how can they tell right from wrong when the true facts are not being reasoned in the first place?
Yes, we know that during wars and conflicts; the truth has always been the first casualty (mostly through exaggeration of victories), but even then, a leader caught out in a bare faced lie suffered often irreversible credibility. Today American TV news stations, such as Fox News spew out one-sided and often false propaganda, whilst social media sites peddle the most farfetched lies that anybody can make up. I can remember the news headlines from the 1950s and 60s because it was simply news and clearly delivered.
Donald Trump’s insane bombardment of daily sensational announcements is a deliberate strategy to ‘flood the zone.’ Before he was elected president of the most powerful country in the world, his rants made for good TV drama and entertainment. This is how he got elected; a country went sleep-walking into the quicksand. History will harshly judge those who are aiding and abetting through flattering Trump’s ego and because of cowardice. The latest is that the would-be dictator has forbidden his press conferences to be fact checked.
The ordinary man in the street, busy earning a living and getting on with life, doesn’t know what to believe anymore. The woman in the office or raising a family doesn’t have the time to check the source or the fact check what she reads or hears. Those spreading fake news are ‘flooding the zone’ and we can’t keep abreast of what is right and what is wrong. Newspapers are being cowed by powerful politicians and billionaires with vested interests. Newsrooms reek of threats, cynicism and lawsuits.
The good news is that there still are – and always will be honest, fearless and courageous journalists who regard their profession as a vocation. These men and women are the last wall of defense against total anarchy drip-feeding and taking hold of society. Mainstream newspapers and unbiased airwave reporting are our last hope for maintaining ‘the use of reason.’
Don’t Forget
‘Read your bible to know what people ought to do. Read this paper to know what they actually do,’ (Advertisement for a local newspaper in Texas.)