A one-legged stool is useless – it has no value – it can only be used for a tiny fraction of its potential – perhaps it can be used for firewood.
A two-legged stool is better in that you may now have more firewood, but its usefulness is still greatly compromised – this stool is not complete – it lacks all its pieces.
A three-legged stool is much better in that it can sustain an upright position and support weight – its usefulness is significantly improved – however, a three-legged stool can be easily unbalanced if the weight it supports is unstable.
But a four-legged stool is the most useful – it can sustain an upright position and support great weight even if the weight is unstable – this stool and its usefulness is complete.
The completeness, totality, and fullness of a thing is essential if we are to rely on it – this is true of anything we lean on, draw from, or depend on – we should take great care to ensure that we only lean on, draw from, or depend on those things that are verifiably complete.
This is truer of ‘information’ than most things we’re faced with today – we all long for a complete understanding, trust, and reliance of information associated with the most important aspects of our lives – our faith, our families, our friends, our government, our financial institutions, and our communities – there are more aspects, but we easily can see the point from these.
Statistics, selective information, videos, and images are the fastest growing instruments being leveraged and manipulated to apply the magic of information “slide of hand” trickeration in attempts to shape narrations and agendas.
Quotes, excerpts, selective passages, and snapshot in time are commonly twisted in the rapid and far-reaching spread of false information today – politicians, influencers, pastors/church leaders, teachers, political action committees, and talking heads have become experts of spinning information to support any given cause or agenda.
This is why complete knowledge of the actual source of information is critical in this world of misleading and false information.
The totality of the source must be considered – the completeness of that source’s behavior, beliefs, and character is more critical than just a snapshot of what a particular source may have shared – one or two “legs of information” will not satisfy a full understanding of what was shared.
We would all agree the following standalone excerpts are good, harmless, and worthy to be shared…
“The cultural importance of a nation is almost always dependent on its political freedom and independence. Political freedom is a prerequisite condition for the existence, or rather the creation, of great cultural undertakings.”
“We must first root out the causes which led to our collapse and we must eliminate all those who are profiting by that collapse.”
“…I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: I am fighting for the work of the Lord .”
“The greatness of Christianity did not lie in attempted negotiations for compromise with any similar philosophical opinions in the ancient world, but in its inexorable fanaticism in preaching and fighting for its own doctrine.”
“Because of its passive character, the simple effort of believing in a political doctrine is enough for the majority, for the majority of mankind is mentally lazy and timid.”
“This is so true that even men who would be ready and willing to fight for the removal of manifest grievances within their own religious denomination will drop their own fight and turn their activities against the outsider the moment the abolition of such grievances is counselled or demanded by one who is not of the same faith.”
“This is chiefly applicable to a parasitic nation which, particularly at the present time preys upon the honest portion of mankind…”
“The tempest of historical achievements seemed to have permanently subsided, so much so that the future appeared to be irrevocably delivered over to what was called peaceful competition between the nations.”
“…it never came into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”
” ‘In a big lie, there is always a certain force of credibility because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to a big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods,’ ”
“If the race is in danger of being oppressed or even exterminated the question of legality is only of secondary importance. The established power may in such a case employ only those means which are recognized as ‘legal’. Yet the instinct of self-preservation on the part of the oppressed will always justify, to the highest degree, the employment of all possible resources.”
“Any violence which does not spring from a spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain. It lacks the stability which can only rest in a fanatical outlook.”
“A fire was enkindled from whose glowing heat the sword would be fashioned which would restore freedom…”
“Today, even in the curriculum of the high schools, only two short hours in the week are reserved for gymnastics; and worse still, it is left to the pupils to decide whether or not they want to take part. This shows a grave disproportion between this branch of education and purely intellectual instruction. Not a single day should be allowed to pass in which the young pupil does not have one hour of physical training in the morning and one in the evening; and every kind of sport and gymnastics should be included.”
“In the education of the girl the final goal always to be kept in mind is that she is one day to be a mother.”
“If necessary, it will have to organize a persistent system of teaching which will aim at abolishing the present-day stupid habit of looking down on physical labour as an occupation to be ashamed of.”
“Generally, readers of the Press can be classified into three groups: First, those who believe everything they read; Second, those who no longer believe anything; Third, those who critically examine what they read and form their judgments accordingly.”
“The most profound cause of such a decline is to be found in the fact that the people ignored the principle that all culture depends on men, and not the reverse. In other words, in order to preserve a certain culture, the type of manhood that creates such a culture must be preserved.”
“With ruthless determination the State must keep control of this instrument of popular education and place it at the service of the State and the Nation.”
“I can fight only for something that I love. I can love only what I respect. And in order to respect a thing I must at least have some knowledge of it.”
“Reading is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. Its chief purpose is to help towards filling in the framework which is made up of the talents and capabilities that each individual possesses.”
“Industry, technology, and commerce can thrive only as long as an idealistic national community offers the necessary preconditions. And these do not lie in material egoism, but in a spirit of sacrifice and joyful renunciation.”
Okay, okay – that’s enough – I’m sure you’re getting the point.
Yes, we would all agree those standalone excerpts are good, harmless, and worthy to be shared… until we consider the source – a quick search on any one of these quotes will easily reveal they all came from “Mein Kampf” a famous work by Adolf Hitler.
In this case, knowing the source happens to be “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler makes it easy to for us raise alarms and consider other sources of information – it’s that simple – in most cases, it takes less than two or three minutes of research and ascertain wheatear or not the information is complete, accurate, and worthy of leaning on.
I can’t state it strongly enough, a holistic, full, accurate understanding of the source of information far outweighs any cool, comfortable, pleasing sound bite, headline, or quote that captured our attention.
“All that glitters is not gold,” is a popular piece of information used by William Shakespeare in the play “The Merchant of Venice” – throughout the years, this phrase has been built on, and added to by many artists, writers, singers, and talking heads – the point of this phrase is eternal – just because something looks good, or sounds right, does not mean it is good or right.
Many of us are leaning on just one or two “information legs” and our information stools are not foundationally solid – we’ll fall for anything if we’re leaning on just one or two legs of our stool – we can do better – the chaos around us begs that we do better.
Kevin's Thoughts 