Uninformed, Misinformed, Disinformed: FUDsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #philosophy7 years ago

As humans, the feedback we receive from the environment is processed and used to better develop our insight and help us make more more effective actions. It is this flow of information and our ability to interpret it that has been driving human development all of these years.

The tribal information

Previously, the information was extracted from our immediate environment but this soon started to spread wider and wider until the entire world's information is at our fingertips. As handy as this seems to be, it has its drawbacks.

When there is such a flow of random information, the human mind cannot process effectively to create effective actions that best fit the immediate environment. On top of this, the source of the information has changed dramatically.

At some point, the source was nature itself and humans used what the observed to act upon. As family units became small tribes, the range of information increased but it was in everyone's best interest to be truthful and support the group for survival. As the groups got larger and started to fragment, this connection began to change and there was a continual increase in using the information to better a micro position of an individual or small group over the macro.

The aggregated disseminated

In today's world, the largest purveyors of information are the governments and media conglomerates with dissemination being handles by the myriad syndicated news services and of course, the trillion dollar social channels. The thing to remember is that, everyone has an angle.

The angle of the past used to be self preservation and this meant providing the information that could protect you, which was the information that best serviced the small family unit or local community. This has not been the case for a very long time.

Now, the goal of most information is to serve two core purposes, power and money, and of course, these work rather well in combination and often feed each other. and, feeding each other is an important factor here when you start looking at how those interact that are after power, Governments, and money, media. There is of course the fence sitters, the corporations.

These three core groups work in unison to maximize their positions and will consistently support each other. One may observe 'hang on, they are in constant battle with each other' but this battle is largely a farce. It is a play to confuse the common spectator and can be used to great effect to either raise or drop a groups intensity.

What this does is create many factions between the powerless that are constantly being push and pulled by centralized authorities. These authorities work together by creating a play of fiction where they appear in a constant on again, off again relationship. This keeps the children, us, in a constant state of indecision.

Fill the Silos

The information that gets disseminated is the core mechanism of control used to tighten the grip on our chains and wallets. The influx is so fast, varied and contradictory that it is near impossible for any group to 'really know' what is going on. Just when one thinks they have been able to grasp understanding, another piece of information refutes it.

On top of this, sources mix what is factual with what is not which means there is no practical chance for the audience to filter what is what from what is not. This leads to many attaching themselves to one particular source that provides view they can generally support. Siloing themselves in other words. The more this happens, the further along a normal distribution they can be pushed and when there is another group doing the same on the other end, enemies are created.

This further feeds the power/money paradigm as it creates the fear and uncertainty that causes many to look for security (Control) and gives a huge amount of turmoil and new routes with which to capitalize on the various markets (money). Essentially, most governments, corporations and media outlets are sellers of FUD and we buy it, eat it and act upon it to create the environment that is best suited for them to take advantage of us.

Decentral Intelligence Agency

What I am hoping that blockchain technology, decentralized AI, platforms like Steemit and decentralized currencies can work together to bring back the idea of an individual being best serviced by looking after the group and the group looking after the individual.

What I mean by this however is that it has the potential to cut out the many rentseeking, greedy, warmongering, power hungry mega units and provide an environment where individuals can truly grow and be a part of a community. It is unlikely that this community will be a tribe like in the past though with a few members, it is going to be massive.

But the tribal rules may still be able to hold as the view of what is best for the entire group is in line with what is best for the individual. To do this though, we have to get rid of the FUD and that takes a concerted effort by individuals and organisations willing to train the uninformed, correct the misinformed and destroy the disinformation.

We are all affected by FUD, whether within ourselves or via the communities we are a part of and how they act in this turmoil. It is in all of our best interests to clean this up and create a system that is truly supportive of individual excellence. This takes all of us together, and every one of us as an individual to learn all we can and build a new understanding.

Decentralization can both reduce the power of the centralized and lower their possibility to gather funds. This returns power to the individual and spreads the wealth wider. There have been and are still too many suffering while working towards their own enslavement at the hands of the people they turn to for security.

I do not have all of this worked out but each day I am learning to be less fearful through the understanding and increasing comfort in uncertainty and turning away from the sellers of disinformation. Screw FUD.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]

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If I may put it succinctly - you seek 'Horizontal Governance'. ;c)



Source

In which case I absolutely agree. :c)

succinctly is only helpful when one has all of the background information relevant to understand. Otherwise, it is in one ear, out the other or, more FUD :)

work together to bring back the idea of an individual being best serviced by looking after the group and the group looking after the individual.

To add to the above. If what you mean here is that society puts the rights of the individual first, and that each individual will up hold the rights of every other individual (coincidentally forming a group) then I agree, and it is the most important part of the post. Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers motto all for one and one for all (Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno), was born out of this idea that individual rights need to be up held, (stemming from political discourse in France in his fathers time) he probably influenced by Switzerland too. This is in direct opposition however, to rights arbitrarily given to a group, because if this is done it will inevitably exclude some portion of individuals from within that same group; hence disabling the group to be able to protect the rights of an individual. This is why intersectional & identitarian politics, only "works" (I use that term loosely) in an authoritarian environment. It doesn't work it has to be forced.

The above would fine all by itself, however imagine two people on a see-saw over a pit of crocodiles, they are free to move any way they want; if they were smart they would quite quickly find equilibrium, and pay careful consideration to future moves. Then add the non aggression principle and the utility of government becomes even less and maybe we might be heading in the right direction.

Problem being, nobody wants this now. It is too difficult for an individual, to do anything for oneself these days; I thought this idea will increase in popularity, but it is being discarded for collectivism or tribalism as you put it. For example we currently are witnessing a backlash from the right because the ultra left went to far and collectivism wins either way.

But the tribal rules may still be able to hold as the view of what is best for the entire group is in line with what is best for the individual.

This one, I disagree with, as it is not possible for this ("view of what is best for the entire group is in line with what is best for the individual.") to be
what is best for all individuals; therefore those individuals will be discriminated against, or forced to comply (violating the non aggression principle). Either way this twists, when you put a group first, the result will be an authoritarian environment. Worse because whoever sets the groups rules, will claim moral justification against those that are "out of the group".

FUD is the reason that education is so important, and guidance be given to people to learn and understand. Some people who don't know what is going to happen for a given action; i.e. everyone should know what will likely happen in a right wing authoritarian government? well we also know what will happen in a left wing authoritarian government (free one-way helicopter rides) and neither are good and people don't know what they are heading towards.

This article really gives a person some things to think about. I have no answers for any of this, only more questions. The only thing I can say is that all individuals should be treated equally, with no exceptions.