The Search for Truth

I had an email back from a young friend in Australia on yesterday's blog ...here is part of what he wrote :-



"Nice article on this subject. I've been following what's happening too. It's clear how biased the news is toward the downfall of the government being positive. I have an Egyptian friend who probably also has his bias but sees this as a terrible event completely manipulated by the Muslim Brotherhood. I think it's one of the great challenges of having mass media and instant communications, not only for people looking on from outside but especially for people in the middle of events to distill the truth from the torrent of biased information. How does a young student know that she's lending authenticity to an extremist group by protesting rather than (as she believes) trying to bring an end to a dictatorship"

It's so true, isn't it?
Everyone has their bias...and we know that whatever we come across in the media has a slant...so how does one begin to make sense of what is going on in the world?

No easy answer to that one! But, somehow realising that one has to make the effort to cover different versions of the same event ( sky news channels from around the world are great for that!) , try to detect what the bias is in each one, and as best one can, subtract a bit of that bias from what one hears ....and even what one thinks, as we too have our personal bias ! Watching the trends as well as the individual events on the news ..looking for patterns, cycles...talking it through with friends
All these will help in some way get closer to the truth of the matter...and perhaps too, recognising that none of us has the whole picture ..so never getting too dogmatic that we're right ...that might keep us open to the ongoing search and the next insight..