When the internet came of age in the early 2000s, the hope was that a single source of information would unify humanity. Since then, it’s become more like Pandora’s Box, where what should have been a gift has been corrupted and weaponized against us.
Humanity’s crowning achievement is knowledge.
Knowledge allowed us to depart from the animal kingdom. It was the knowledge of how to build stone axes and how to make fire that set us apart as a species. Over time, that transformed into the knowledge of how to cultivate crops and farm animals for slaughter. With these two inventions, the necessity of the hunter-gatherer came to an end. The invention of writing appears to be related to commerce, allowing trade to be undertaken, ledgers to be kept, debts to be collected, and taxes to be raised. Armies arose as a means of stealing wealth and resources and conquering rivals.
Woven throughout history is the importance and ascendancy of knowledge. The counterpoint to knowledge is lies. As knowledge has grown, so have lies, as BOTH provide a means of influencing others and getting people to band together. From at least the time of the pharaohs, the divine right of kings has been a lie used to subjugate people. And then arose the Age of Reason, where philosophers dared to challenge the norms of politics and religion, marking the birth of modern democracy.
The Age of Reason is a spectacular triumph of human intellect. For Kant, Voltaire and Rousseau, it seemed as though a new world was awakening. After several world wars and untold conflicts, humans have failed to advance to live in reason, to build a society based on logic and evidence. Instead, we have fallen into the Age of Misinformation, where lies are peddled as truth.
It is both tragic and fascinating to see how quickly people seize on lies they agree with instead of having the honesty to hold to the truth. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the irrational response to the pandemic, where vaccines have been criticized as though there were no lethal virus sweeping the world. The problem is… human instinct is to rush to judgment.
“To prejudge other men’s notions before we have looked into them is … to put out our own eyes.” John Locke (1632–1704)
And this raises an interesting question… why are we so susceptible to lies? Why are we so susceptible to grifters manipulating us for their own greedy gains? Why do we distrust good science in favor or self-grandizing liars? Perhaps the most odious example of this is the supposed “wellness” industry that has set itself up as the champion of the people, protecting us from the evils of Big Pharma. Challenging evidence-based medicine is a 7 trillion dollar a year industry—and for what? Because “Big Pharma” is the problem with our health. And yet that industry comes in at less than 2 trillion dollars a year! Lies, it seems, are highly profitable, but not helpful.
Why do intelligent people fall for lies? Why haven’t we moved on from the Age of Reason and Enlightenment to something greater? Why have we gone backwards so easily under the onslaught of misinformation?
The answer is right there in our history if we care to look for it.
Humans are intelligent. Of that, there is no doubt. But consider how small the Age of Reason is compared to the Age of Superstition and Religion that preceded it. Even if we take a modest estimate and start counting from the advent of cultivation, allowing civilizations to arise, it’s a few hundred years set against ten thousand years. Why did it take so long for the Age of Reason to occur? The answer is chilling…
We like to think for ourselves. We like to reason things through. We pride ourselves on our opinions. But the act of reasoning isn’t what we think… Our ability to reason didn’t arise because we needed to solve problems; it arose because we needed to defend our positions.
“We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem, which is threatened.”
― James Harvey Robinson, The Mind In The Making
And that’s it… Reasonable people are people who will reason to protect their beliefs.
Skilled arguers are not after the truth but after arguments supporting their views. — Mercier & Sperber
And this is why we’re so vulnerable to misinformation. Reason should give us the tools we need to think critically and see through lies, but our ability to reason is a defensive measure. From an evolutionary perspective, it is designed to protect our beliefs rather than challenge them.
If we are ever to escape the snare of misinformation, we must learn to reason openly and honestly, being willing to abandon our beliefs if proven wrong.
[When it came to my beliefs] I was ready to sacrifice every one of my previous convictions. — Max Planck
We’re suspicious of new ideas when what we should be questioning is the old ones!
“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.” — John Locke
We live in an age where confidence and certainty are valued, but we should treasure doubts. It’s only an inquiring mind that can be curious. And without curiosity, there’s no ability to learn.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.” — Voltaire
I’ve never met anyone peddling misinformation who wasn’t absurdly confident and certain, and that alone means their ideas should be subject to closer examination.
Jean‑Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) observed that “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” Rather than doubling down and defending the chains that bind us, we need to reason honestly and logically to escape them.
Immanuel Kant said, “Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own reason.” To which, I would add… just be sure it is your own and not someone else’s reason you are defending.
