© Roger M Tagg 2009 revised 2010
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
These thoughts are largely based on a book of this name by D Southwell, Funtastic Press, Rowville, Victoria, Australia.
Southwell seems pretty cynical about institutions. Here are some quotations from his book.
He also asks - does anyone trust "Independent Commissions", “Full Inquiries” or other similar public institutions? They are often seen as just another arm of the government that is trying to hide things from us in the first place.
There is a field of knowledge these days called “Information Warfare”, which seems to be about trying to capture military secrets from one’s opponents (and sometimes even from ones allies), at the dame time as keeping one’s own secrets from them and if possible feeding them with false information. One interesting question is - who controls the agencies that withhold the truth that is sometimes withheld from the elected governments?
There has also been a practice of long standing of rulers “rewriting the official history” to block out unpalatable truths, and to make their regime appear better than it really is.
Governments, businesses - and even the media – are not shy about spreading scare stories or building up a common enemy as a “bogeyman”whom we can all hate and not have qualms about being nasty to.
The other common practice is the selective use of statistics, i.e. taking just those figures that justify one’s agendas.
I think it can be, but it can just as easily be misused. What I like is that one can often find several different viewpoints on an issue, not just the official line.
That doesn’t work in China, where the government can block whatever pages it doesn’t like – even Wikipedia, I am told. No doubt this page will get censored as well.
However Southwell is more of a pessimist than I am. He says:
The information superhighway is so grid-locked by so many lies that it's hard to know what to believe.
It may be deemed necessary to create a bargaining position or to gain trust.
Sir Walter Scott spoke of a “tangled web”, meaning that in order to maintain an original lie, an increasingly complex set of secondary lies has to be maintained to protect the first lie. Eventually an inconsistency gets exposed, or the story gets so unlikely that no-one believes it any more. To paraphrase Southwell:
Why do governments eventually fall? Their credibility drops to the point where we are prepared to prefer an untried team from the opposition.
Why do people "want to believe" or prefer simple explanation models? Many seem to prefer myths and mumbo-jumbo. Maybe they are brought up to believe in a religion, so belief and faith come naturally. Maybe it is an easier currency in which to trade in eveyday social situations.
Maybe they resent science and logical thinking, and prefer stories that appeal to their emotions and instincts. Advertisers take advantage of this. Southwell says:
The comfort zone that an illusion built around a framework of lies can give us, is often more appealing than facing up to the harsh realities”
Other possibilities are:
Index to more of these diatribes
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 1st February 2010
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .