Friday, July 14, 2006

Nothing But the Truth

If it's not already a saying that "A little bit of knowledge is worse than total ignorance," then I am going to coin it on the spot. Coin it, patent it, charge you money to use it, whatever. Because it's SO true.

All my life, my father has had a great loathing of the mainstream media, and has not kept this aversion secret one bit. I never really understood his agitation; sure I knew that they were blatantly biased, dyed in the wool wackos, unabashedly liberal but painting themselves as objective journalists, not telling the whole story, rotten to the core, and all that...But for some reason, I just calmly accepted it as inevitable, and tried to ingest enough Rush Limbaugh as an antidote. Recently, however, I have found myself getting more and more enraged as I see the effects of the liberal media on people around me. For example, the man in my office I refer to as Mr. Loafer/Slacker/Chatterbox. He will come up with the most off the wall stuff that has about 16% truth and 84% twisted lies which have the fingerprints of the media all over it. It makes me almost literally sick. I try to choose my battles because I don't want to be in constant outward battle mode...( it's hard enough to be in constant inward battle mode) but I have gotten into several discussions lately. For one thing, I couldn't let his comment slide about how what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is like what Nazi Germany was doing to the Jews...WHAT? HELLO! The Jews weren't blowing themselves up in the middle of Berlin and trying to wipe the Germans off the map! Sorry but your analogy makes about as much sense as...as...as...*splutters into silence as she can't even think of something nonsensical enough to compare it against...*

So anyway, at least the whole office knows where I stand now...But sometimes I just have to turn up my music on my headphones so I can just drown out the garbage around me because it's just too much. That ipod was the best Christmas present ever.

As much as I love history, and as much as I enjoyed studying it in college, sometimes I wonder if I should have majored in something else that might be a little more utilitarian, as far as money making is concerned. ( Seeing as how I am not teaching...) But then I encounter a situation like this and I think, " I am SO glad I know some history. I am SO glad I know the bigger picture." And I know I wouldn't trade my history classes for all the oil in Saudi Arabia.

So, Daddy, I'm realizing that I've inherited another thing from you: a stomach churning hatred for half truths, and along with that an appreciation and love for the whole truth.

5 comments:

brilynne said...

Oooh, Claire, I was just considering posting on the saying, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." (Alexander Pope, I believe) You've pretty much got my topic covered, I guess.

Hooray for Claire and her staunch defense of truth!

Aaron said...

Way to go Claire, sticking up for what you believe! How can anyone believe that? Good thing you were there to be a history teacher for him! By the way, if you did have all the oil in Saudi Arabia, you would be the richest person in the world and could take all the history courses you wanted. Plus, you could choose a job surrounded by conservatives and you could drive any car you wanted to work! Maybe you should reconsider your statement. ;)

lis said...

And then the Holy Spirit makes a way to for you to talk truth, and ahhhh... :O)

You'll post about that, right? After you're done escaping into oblivion?

Shari said...

What's even more frustrating is having a few relatives who are so blindly liberal that they think you're uneducated, ignorant, and simple-minded when you don't believe all of the lies that the mainstream media spew. And that being a conservative Christian = bigotry, hatred and stupidity. Even though Brent and I never judge them or criticize them for their beliefs, we're the ones that are automatically branded with those labels. I've actually been shocked at how much hatred and judgment I've seen displayed towards Christians in recent years, when all of the judgment and hate is coming from the liberals that I know and not at all from the Christians. That's not to say that there's not Christians out there who are doing unkind things in the name of Jesus, but I just haven't seen that in my circle of friends.

ljm said...

Totally off topic here...I'm abandoning poor Jerome and need to test out my new profile pic...here goes! Whoop, there goes the sail!