The world is changing, and yet it is impossible to evaluate whether the change is more inclined for the better or for the worse. The big picture cannot be seen from within the stream of time itself; this is a debate better left for historians of the future which will take what had happened in our time as given and attempt to understand the cause, and speculate what could other possible results be. And yet, even today, one thing is certain: the worst weapon of the current era has nothing to do with nuclear fission, deadly chemicals or RNA-engineered virii. No shelter would protect from it, because the life of each and every man depends on it. Information. It is essential to survive, to succeed, to climb towards the top of the social ladder, or, should I say, food chain. We have all heard the age-old saying, "Knowledge is power". Indeed, social creatures like humans have far better chances of survival when having not only their own experience to rely upon, but the knowledge of others and the lore of past generations as well. Many hundred years ago, humans have convinced themselves in the valuability of all information they could lay their hands upon. Back then, information sources were limited indeed, and the additional experience of a well-learned statesman or strategist was in many cases able to change the course of history. Today, however, people are constantly driven by the fear of making wrong decisions because of being under-informed, under-educated, under-realistic, under-objective, under-correct. This very fear results in billions of people worldwide trying to filter untold amounts of empty soil in search of a few grains of gold which truly could aid them. In most cases, the endless search for profitable opportunities mostly results in the person buying a new ware for $999.90 instead of the token thousand.
The media adds more oil to the fire: a column writer's analytical opinion could depend on many factors a casual reader is unable to take into account, ranging from the way he was raised as a child to the interests of the media company the newspaper represents. You may say, "We don't need anyone else's digested opinions, let's hear the facts and make our own!". But where is fact and where is fiction? Are you sure everything in the world corresponds to what the media tells you? Are you sure there's no exaggeration in earthquake casualties in one country and diminution of numbers of war refugees in another? Are you sure that on September 11, 2001, a plane crashed into the Pentagon? Are you sure the Bearded Bin exists at all? Are you sure the world that surrounds us is real? This may sound like paranoid conspiracy theories, but this is what causes people to seek... you're right, more information, hoping they will eventually find the real McCoy, but in the end still having only their opinions to rely upon.
Does a common man actually want to know the bitter truth? Does he want natural disasters, terrorist attacks, wars and crimes to strike his TV screen on a daily basis? "Silly escapism." - you may say. "We need to be in touch with reality, as bitter as it might be." But can you actually do something about the victims of the recent disaster other than being depressed because of them and donating a few cents to charity organisations which are seldom completely honest? If no, then what use would this information be to you? Why can't you live without knowing it? And why must the never-ending torrent of information eventually result in more and more people losing the ability to distinguish relevant things from irrelevant, to form their own unbiased opinion, to more or less realistically speculate about the future? Why must increasing numbers of people feel the desire to seal themselves within an informational vacuum, only remaining aware of the part of the outside world that is immediately relevant to them? Why must our neural "hardware" run mental "software" with cognitive "system requirements" that increase with every passing day? Is it a psycho-ecological catastrophe? Or is it just another form of natural selection, through which, only those that actually can make sense of all this mess will survive?
Listen not to those who think they know the answers. Only Time itself will tell. And when it will, it would be unwise not to listen.
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An insightful Polish science fiction writer by the name of Stanislav Lem once wrote a series of demi-satirical, demi-philosophical novels by the collective name of "The Cyberiad". One of such novels is a satiric fable about an overly wise space pirate which lusted not for wealth and luxury, instead preferring to hoard knowledge. Once, he captured a brilliant inventor, and in exchange for his freedom the inventor agreed to construct for him a machine which was effectively omniscient and knew all there was to know about the universe...
...After months and months of devouring one cross-reference after another and never being able to keep track of them, learning thousands of arts and sciences from millions of view points, being treated to many billion definitions for the meaning of life, none of them ever satisfying him, and absorbing an insane array of facts he could never remember, let alone make a sense of, the bandit sage learned his lesson and was just about to put an end to his miserable life when he finally realized that all knowledge is subjective and constitutes not the purpose, but the means for its achievement. Finally understanding that the only useful thing he had learned since he obtained the wondrous device came not from it, but from within himself, the guy trashed the machine and resorted to what was truly his passion in life: plundering and swashbuckling, only this time, for the sake of good, old-fashioned buckazoids.
