Watching again, this time with some friends, a recording of Howard Zinn’s broadcast of The People Speak on the History Channel was a vivid reminder of how it is not information but the power of art, speech and action that persuades persons and changes history.
We live in the information age. We are inundated with information. Sometimes I think there is too much information and we cannot process it and let it be our own. More information often numbs us rather than leads us to take action. There is too much to learn, do and feel, so sometimes we do nothing and feel nothing.
We have so much information available to us but so little sense of right and wrong. Truth is no longer an absolute we seek but just an unending collection of information. Gandhi characterized himself as always struggling for truth. Many of us today could be characterized as always seeking more information. We often mistake information as truth.
Often these days I feel like the information I have far outstrips by action and awareness. I feel like I need to know less to really know more.
People I have admired in life, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day or Mahatma Gandhi were not very current on day to day news, but yet understood what was happening in life much better than the well informed man or woman. What they knew, they knew deeply, and the quality of their knowledge made up for any lack of quantity.
We live in an information age where information is often money. I believe we need to live more in a reflective age, where we perhaps have less information but know more about what we know. Facts and figures are fine but information does not change hearts and minds like a story, experience or art can do. Too Much Information, (TMI), can be way of avoiding knowing the truth.
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