RE: The Cult of Anti-Intellectualism
There is a concept that has lead to useful, true results, and that is the Scientic Method.
For me, this takes the form of Observation, Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Research, and Praxis.
Praxis is a step I thought of myself, and it means that if a piece of data, a fact, a theory, is true, it should also be useful.
It should be utilized in building a tool, creating a medicine, or inventing a machine. Good information should yield good results, and due to the extreme ignorance of people, the scientific method should grow to be even more difficult to get information accepted as true.
This extra step makes it even harder for information to be considered true, seeing as you have to actually use the information to build something useful that relies upon the principle at hand.
What do you think?
I think it depends within the frame of context. Some information might be discovered which could be useful at another date, or useful to someone else, but I myself might not see any use in it. So in a sense it could mean what is not true today could be true tomorrow.
When it comes to truth though I just like to think that I'll never really know, but as long as I have applied the scientific method I can assume it is true.
I'm all over the show with what to think on true and useful, but I do see usefulness in it :D For example if a politician says something (such as stirring up hatred or creating distractions) which may not be true, if they cannot apply that information in a useful way then it should be dismissed.
I'll start conciously thinking "how can this information be of use to me" and see if it improves my thought processes.
Thanks for sharing!