Historians Have To Be Interested In Truth

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Historians have to be interested in truth. The facts matter to those endeavouring to decipher things that have happened. Historians, then, tell us stories about the things that occurred and what were the motivating forces likely to have inspired them. It is an inexact science, as much of life and the accounts of its people often are. Historians might scour the media for the reporting and op-eds, which appeared at the time, to shed light on the matters being examined. If the time frame is fairly recent, they may well interview first hand sources – those who witnessed directly the events in question. Primary sources are the gold for any historical account worth its weight and wishing to be counted as factual.

History, Fake News & Social Media

We are living in an age, where truth and facts are distorted and disparaged by political leaders hell bent on power. The rise of social media has put gossip and lies in a seemingly credible format. The digital revolution has seen style eclipse substance. Thus, making utter rubbish look believably cogent. Images and video are manipulated to tell the kind of story so desired. Fake news is the joker in the pack, along with AI rendered identity fraud. Yuval Harari, a historian, has been warning all and sundry about the dangers we are facing from counterfeit human beings. Bots and scammers are undermining the faith we once had in our institutions and each other.

The Failing Religion Of Science

No one can arrest this slide into nihilism, as the religion they call science fails us. Political leaders in cahoots with billionaires consistently cast doubt on climate scientists. This has triggered a chain reaction where stupid people feel emboldened to reject all expert advice on everything. Pandemics have become political and public health policy a battlefield. Vaccination and mask wearing fought over as badges of partisanship. Social media accelerates the mass sharing of toxic falsehoods.  I always wondered how the great American empire would fall. Historians endlessly wonder on what caused the ancient Roman empire to crumble. Wealth and power are not ever set in stone. The craziness of people and how conspiratorial beliefs can sweep through populations will bring down even the greatest.

The populist demagogue is harbinger of the coming destruction. Putting fools and low life’s in charge of things will hasten the end.

Historians have to be interested in truth. Unfortunately, the general public do not share the same care for finding out the facts about things. Too many folk love to take stuff at face value. The Internet is full of deceiving digital faces, where you cannot sniff out the deception. I wonder how many of us, unknowingly, have online conversations with machines? Bots spreading false flags on forums. The incredible success of scams in the online space is testament to this. Criminals and those running foreign influence campaigns have found a new home. The Internet is their mansion with many rooms.

“Foreign actors use misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation campaigns to cause chaos, confusion, and division. These malign actors are seeking to interfere with and undermine our democratic institutions and national cohesiveness.”

• (https://www.cisa.gov/topics/election-security/foreign-influence-operations-and-disinformation)

It is a billion dollar industry and capable of shifting the outcome of elections. Too many folk are untrained in the use and perils of the online space. Lots of people get on their social media after a few drinks. They have let their guard down and it might be greed or loneliness driving them to connect with persons or machines unknown. Perhaps, the Internet should come with a warning for persons of all ages ‘ DO NOT TALK TO STRANGERS!’ A beguiling spiel and fake image can not only take your breath away but your savings too, it seems.

I blame Steve Jobs and the iPhone. Not only have people been gulled into spending thousands of dollars on a phone but it has poisoned a whole generation so far. Human beings now stare into this hand held screen looking for reaffirmation of their existence. In digital image and text they seek belief in who they appear to be. An electronic mirror reflecting back filtered data in pictures and text. Algorithms count things like number of friends and views. Technology measuring stuff to determine health, wealth and happiness. The addictive nature of this personal device can be observed by how close it is kept by most owners at all times. If you showed someone from the past via a time machine the current state of play I am sure they would be amazed.

The invention of the mobile phone, which has become a multiplicity of devices in one, filters much of life and our engagement with others through it. This means that too many of us are far more susceptible to impressions of reality coloured by digital deception. You may be familiar with the alien machines depicted in HG Well’s War Of The Worlds? Well, we have been invaded, but not by Martians, and these machines are far more subtle – but much more powerful in their effect upon human consciousness. The invasion has not come from without but from our own Big Tech. The widely held belief that we Homo sapiens are super smart is erroneous. We are simple creatures in our gullibility and unquestioning herd like adherence to fashions. Our behaviours and habits belie any real cleverness or smarts. Our love of high tech is like our earlier love of shiny metals and colourful gems. Both can sparkle and draw us in. Our addictive attachment to screen worlds and applications like social media have made our fall from grace possible. Grace being at one with truth or a basic commitment to getting at the facts, at the very least.

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.

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