We have seen that very often people manipulate information to their
advantage. It can happen for a number of reasons, depending on what will
benefit the talker. We have seen an example of how the American candidate Mitt
Romney has distorted the information contained in a book written by Jared
Diamond. The book talks about the reasons why some countries are wealthy and
some are poor. It is a very complete research and explores many possible
causes. Mitt Romney changed the content in the book to his advantage, saying
that the American people should believe in America, not because of geographic
features, but because America is the greatest country in the world. He
simplified Diamond's research in a way that benefited his speech and gave the
public a wrong idea of what Diamond actually said. That made Diamond angry, of
course, and the author published an article explaining what his book was about,
and criticizing Mitt Romney's action. That kind of manipulated information is
more common than imagined. Not only in politics, but in marketing,
campaigns, and many other situations. People use any kind of information
to their favor; they simplify it, they change it. All adapted to the public
they want to reach. And the interesting part is that people actually believe
them. If you say something with confidence, people are likely to believe you.
Very few will take the time to think your argument through. It is important that
the population has judgment, otherwise people that manipulate and abuse their
academic knowledge (or lack of it), will be future leaders and the population
will always be fooled and manipulated, like has happened in countless
situations in History so far. Instruction is needed not only for the people in
charge, to create academically sophisticated and intellectual leaders, but also
to the population, so they will know whether they are being told the truth or
not. With ignorant voters, corrupt governors will come to power and the
population will always be lied to. That will cause a corrupt democracy, where
life conditions are poor to the residents of the country, and the population is
not respected. A factor that is treated in Jared Diamond's book about a country's
wealth is an honest government. Intellectual capable people will make smarter
choices when choosing future leaders. But for a country to develop, it does not
depend solely in a capable voting population: it depends on capable leaders. If
there is an intelligent population, but no leaders worth voting on, it won't
make any difference. The leaders must be prepared and taught to use their
academic knowledge in an honest way. If both the population and their leaders
are honest, able to use information in the right way, and be prepared to
fulfill their duties correctly, the country will move forward and society will
be benefited.
Now, last but not least, (definitely not least), possible subjects that I would like to transform into a project in this class are either music or literature. I love both, and I haven't made up my mind yet. I am sure either one would make a good project, and I will have to make a decision at some point. But right now, I really don't know.
