The Rising Tide of Intellectual Terrorism
It’s not over and won’t be for a long time. The fallout from the election events has brought a storm of violence against minorities of every type. Including children. Increasingly, we read about children being the target of vicious comments, bullying, and the raging frustration of adults. Some are also being taught the power of hate and the ways of retaliation.
Today’s children are growing up in a multi-level tangle of the shifting societal structures we call “norms”. These little ones can be easily lead in any direction or, just as easily, fall over the edge into the abyss.
This wanton aggression against others isn’t going to die down, isn’t going to go away, and won’t stop affecting our daily lives on a personal level. Neither will climate change, declining educational standards, increasing corporate greed, pesticides in our food, nor any of the other problems we are facing. Not in this generation. In addition, the exploding Pandora’s box unleashed by the election results is a daunting world in which to raise a child.
How did this happen–this new world disorder? A good part of the cause was from a new type of aggression. So new, I haven’t found an official name for it yet. I’m calling it “intellectual terrorism.” Too strong a word? I don’t think so–not when it has already proven to have the power to completely disrupt a nation, its government, and its people. It usually goes by the more benign term “fake news”.
Fake news has actually been around for decades. However, it was normally limited to the tabloids found at every grocery store checkout lane. Years ago fake news was a mere undercurrent. The headlines talked of rumored wrong-doings by celebrities or the “fact” that they were lying about their age. (Perhaps knowing this rather insignificant version of fake news lulled us into thinking all such “information” was harmless.)
As years went by, the “news” in these tabloids became more accusatory, more cruel, and less true. Few people believed them and those who did weren’t in any position to do much harm. Granted, the headlines have now gotten slanderously vicious, but they are the tabloids. We’re used to them. They aren’t bringing governments down and children don’t read them.
Then came the fake news of the last election. Half the population believed it all, half didn’t. The proclamations were not only inaccurate, but also mean, rude, and irreparably damaging. In the end, they swayed votes. Fake news did its part and changed the outcome of a national election which, in turn, will change the face of the country and its place in the world for years to come.
Where did these blatant lies come from? I assumed they were divisive actions by those who wanted their candidate to win at any cost. They played dirty. It was underhanded. Or so I thought.
Then I ran into an article at a trusted BBC news site. As bad as I thought the manipulation of the fake news was, in reality, it was worse. Much worse. Those political supporters had simply picked up on stories that were being purposely manufactured for monetary gain, by a group of people in a foreign nation.
Stop. Let that sink in. People in another country planted false information in our country and changed the course of our history. This is true intellectual terrorism. The potential is mind-boggling. Those particular foreigners were very young. They performed this act of terrorism out of a sort of youthful exuberance for money and what they could then buy for themselves.
Read the article here.
The proverbial genie is out of the bag. Now anyone can see how to manufacture and spread false information–not out of any innocence, but with deliberate drive to sway minds and/or do harm. How much misinformation will make it to your dining room table conversation and be overheard by your children? Will those children be able to discern truth from lie? Will manufactured facts make it into their classrooms, their textbooks? The real question, the more useful one, is how do we teach them to be able to sort through and sift out the trusted from the tainted? In short, how can there be any defense against such an insidious threat to our future and the power it has?
The answer lies in the most vulnerable to the attacks–our children. I stumbled upon this answer when I recently visited another state. I saw “ordinary” (read extraordinary) parents, and one entire school, who are raising accepting, loving children. Even the youngest are also learning to be proactive problem-solvers and creative critical thinkers. They ask questions, weigh answers, and make rational decisions. They are being armed in all the tools to thrive in, contribute to, and protect society.
True, it may have been a small microcosm of our total population, but it did show what is possible. It is in these adults that hope and sanity will prosper. They are the guardians of children who are being nurtured to be kind, compassionate, independent, resilient, confident, and wise grown-ups with intellectual integrity. These adults are also keeping these youngsters both aware of, and safe from, the turmoil and chaos that takes on a new face at every turn.
These young students, and every amazing sensei that guides them, embody the kind of intellectual “weapon” we need. This is, people like them are, our best defense, perhaps the only defense, against mounting intellectual terrorism.
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