As IF Times

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In many cultures in which there is a rich written history, one will find writings which are allegorical in nature. For example in Chinese, Japanese and Indian literature, we find stories and fables which at first pass are amusing but with deeper inspection, one will find plenty of hidden, often thinly veiled political references. Why was this?  Well for one thing, many ancient cultures had rather repressive regimes and any overt criticism of the rulers would likely lead to being disappeared from society.  These rulers imagined themselves to be kings of the world, or at least those parts that mattered, thus any negativity against them was frowned upon. One could not just paint ‘the king sucks’ on the side of a castle.

Thus, it was often through the use of allegory and fables in which artists made their points but it had to be framed in such a way that it could be excused as just entertainment without being linked directly to state criticism.  Of course, you had to expect that the autocrats wouldn’t be bright enough to figure it out. Many of the fables in Aesop’s Fables give timeless lessons and wisdom on human nature, desires and morality but often with hidden political meaning.  Western writers also contributed to this style of narrative.

Certainly some of the most notable works in this genre are by George Orwell and Ayn Rand.  Animal Farm, 1984 and Atlas Shrugged are timeless works on the proclivities of man and governments which seem all the more pertinent today.

This tradition is also evident in the west by activist music artists as they sneak messages of protest and complaint in the lyrics of their compositions.  Most don’t even know the theme of the songs until they delve into the specific lines.  An example would be “The End of The Innocence” by the Eagles in the 1980’s, an oblique critique against the Reagan years.

Over time, these types of ‘protest art’ have enriched all societies with their timeless messages and artistry.  As the world became less dominated by autocratic rulers who chafed at every imagined slight against them, criticisms of government became less oblique and in fact quite direct and pointed….at least in the West. It’s not uncommon to find images and representations of un-popular leaders depicted as all kinds of unflattering animals. Everyone in the public space was fair game.

But recently, we’ve seen a distinct thinning of the skin of those in charge (no doubt because of climate change). Increasingly, those in charge are taking umbrage at any criticism of their edicts and narratives and begin to take action or threatening to take action against any who would dare question the official narrative. The very most recent example is a functionary from Great Britain, a police commissioner named Rowley, who has threatened to reach across the oceans and prosecute and imprison anyone daring to criticize their narratives.  Though not a king, this man imagines himself to be Lord of his imaginary realm. Comically, this from the land of Monty Python which is now not only not Great, but also becoming less Britain.  It’s the equivalent of ‘I’ll cut you man!”

We can understand the frustration of those in charge since their hold on the compliant mass media has collapsed.  While there are still adherents to legacy media outlets, other sources, notably the X platform, Truth Social and Gab are now sources of real, unfiltered information without the attendant gas-lighting built into all state media.  Thanks to brave people such as Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and recently freed Julian Assange, the real truth is exposed for all to see.

This is a sea change for information and media as the Barney Fifes of the media world flail away trying to preserve their once powerful hold over people’s views. I can imagine they’ll come up with all kinds of ridiculous methods to censor people such as charging for the use of the alphabet.  Orwell was correct.  There’s always going to be the big scale tyrant wanna-be’s but it’s the little tyrants  and bootlickers that cause the most daily grief. They seem to multiply like cold sores at an orgy and are just as hard to be rid of.

I’ve spilt plenty of virtual ink discussing the evolution of the accessibility of information to the masses over the course of history.

There have always been those in any given society who had preferential access to knowledge, or at least information, that they used to great advantage over those less in the know.  For the longest time and even up to present day, religious practitioners were the arbiters of information and truth.   Entire civilizations were founded and run by those with the power conferred upon them by a religious hierarchy and this continues to this day.  Thus, access to information and knowledge was the key to population control.

This model works pretty well since being the ultimate authority on information and truth means that it wasn’t necessary to actually prove anything.  To paraphrase the utterance of Al Gore, the truth is like gravity….it just is.  Of course we know what happened over time.  Some of the great thinkers of humanity decided to take more objective measures on truth and reality.  Men of great intelligence and bravery dared to challenge the established truths of their time and thus their revelations laid the foundation for modern education. Men such as Da Vinci, Copernicus and Galileo showed that knowledge can be empirically achieved and not just by taking someone’s word for it.

Most of everything which we consume and from which we benefit in our daily lives depends on empirical science.  Observations are made about our environment, they are measured, there are experiments and then there are conclusions which become universal truths.  Notwithstanding that in modern times, the notion that 2 plus 2 equals 4 is a racist construct to some, this does not change the fact that 4 is always the answer when 2 plus 2 is the question.

The entire point of education is to spread the ability to think and act rationally via legitimate processes of thought.  It is therefore of the greatest irony that despite mankind having the greatest access to information ever in human history, that populations are as clueless as those who used to depend on the town gossip for their truths.  The modern purveyors of ‘truth’ are often the most vapid.

Part of this paradox lies with what actually constitutes an education.  Whereas once rational processes were taught at schools, now we see more and more squishiness on topics of knowledge.  Relativism is as important in education as are the lenses through which education is transmitted.   At the end of the process, we get people who are pretty sure that 2 plus 2 equals 4, but we also have those who think that this result has an asterisk.  Both of these constituencies have the same nominal degree, but both operate under quite different realities.  Thus, entire populations emerge, notionally ‘educated’ populations, who can never agree on a plainly evident logical construct.   You cannot easily make good policy decisions if there are those who think 2 plus 2 contributes to Global warming.

Unfortunately, in a free society, such people can, and often do, rise to positions of political influence which detrimentally affects everyone.  Anyone who was perhaps a drama teacher or part time snowboard instructor, could impress their version of 2 plus 2 upon a population vastly more educated and qualified than them to make big picture decisions.

So it appears as if we’ve come full circle on the distribution of information and knowledge.  The only difference is that this time people actually know the truth and are able to verify thus for themselves….should they choose.  Oddly, large numbers don’t.  They instead rely on the utterances of those unable to give an answer to a simple 2 plus 2 question.  Entire societies have been run like this for the better part of two generations.  They have allowed the least qualified to make policy. Given the tack taken by governments of many nations on numerous favored woke issues,  we can easily see the day when we don’t even need schools, the government will just tell you all you need to know in official pamphlets….or they could employ a national broadcasting corporation.  As is already true in nations such as China, we can see the circumstance when disagreeing with the official narrative is made illegal; but at least they help to ‘re-educate’ you if you so stray.  Or Canada, where they close your bank accounts down if you don’t agree with their positions.

I mentioned some of the great thinkers of history above as being foundational for rational thinking and education which led to the creation of great civilizations.  But it’s also thanks to authors such as George Orwell and Ayn Rand to remind us that the natural inclination of man to control others by information or misinformation is always at work.  Julian Assange has proved this. There may be the equivalents of Da Vinci and Galileo somewhere today, great thinkers who may yet lead civilization again, but in the meantime, the mental midgets…er, little people,  are running the show.