This isn’t, or isn’t quite, what I’ll be talking about this week. But what strikes me as a probably-pecksniffian — look it up — nasty prank got my attention:
About speculation mentioned in the Reuters summary: there’s no reported evidence, a little before noon here in central Minnesota, pointing at folks pushing any one particular ‘Great Cause’ having set fires and stolen equipment.
The good news is that, so far, nobody seems to have been hurt. Apart from folks in France having their lives disrupted by a major transportation SNAFU.
That’s not always the case, when folks with high ideals and flexible ethics decide that doing something bad for ‘the greater good’ is a just simply spiffing idea:
Marian Garden, Our Lady of Angels, Sauk Centre, Minnesota.
My parish is Our Lady of the Angles in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. It’s part of the Parishes on the Prairie Catholic Community — and that’s a topic for another time.
Aside from routine matters, we’re not exactly at the center of diocesan activity. That’s why I think our priest, Fr. Greg Paffel, getting this year’s diocesan Humanae Vitae Award is a big deal.
I’ll be talking about that, briefly, “Humanae Vitae”, and why I think human life matters.
Billy Sunday, preaching up a storm, as shown in Metropolitan Magazine. (1915)
Each year our diocese gives their Humanae Vitae Award to someone “who has demonstrated courage in promoting Natural Family Planning”, NFP.1
From my viewpoint, NFP involves a married couple being responsible, using scientific knowledge of human biology.
It’s counter-cultural, but my teens and the Sixties overlap, so that doesn’t bother me.
The Sixties is also when a few regrettable ideas got traction.
I think I understand why so many folks defied antiquated rules. Or what they thought were antiquated rules, at any rate.
A half-century later, we’ve still got regrettable ideas in play.
“The True Voice of the Church….”
It’s apparently okay for folks to use a Catholic house of worship as a projector screen for not-exactly-pro-Catholic slogans. Despite a cardinal’s protest.
“Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory criticized a light show projected onto the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by Catholics for Choice and other supporters of abortion as thousands of faithful gathered for Mass during the annual National Prayer Vigil for Life, Jan. 20.
Thanks to today’s information tech, any American with a halfway-decent Internet connection has access to what the Church says.
The trick is remembering that a sound bite on the nightly news may not accurately reflect what the Church has been saying.
And that brings me to “Humanae vitae”.
My First Look at Catholic Thought
I wasn’t a Catholic when my wife and I got married; which involved a little paperwork, since marriage is a sacrament.
One of these days I may talk about sacraments and marriage, but not today. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1113ff, 2360-2379, and more)
Anyway, part of the process included giving my word that I’d see to it that our children, if any, would be raised as Catholics.
That’s when the trouble started. I’d given my word, so part of my job was learning what being a Catholic meant: and that got me started reading “Humanae vitae”: “Of Human Life”.
This was before the World Wide Web, so I got a print copy of the English translation: nearly seven thousand words of academese.2
Scholarly language notwithstanding, I’d expected to find logical gaps big enough for semi-trailer traffic.
I didn’t find any. Which was frustrating, since I didn’t like the rules.
But the logic was watertight.
That put me in an awkward position. I could either stop thinking that, for example, reality is real and actions have consequences; or accept that the Church was right about artificial contraception.
On a related note, my father-in-law warned me that if I kept learning about the Church, eventually I’d know too much. He was right. After a while, I realized that the authority our Lord gave Peter is currently held by the Pope.
At that point, becoming a Catholic was my only viable option.
I really hadn’t wanted to become a Catholic. But doing so made sense: and would continue making sense, no matter how I was feeling. I enjoy being Catholic, by the way: and that’s yet another topic.
Why Human Life Matters
A public session during Vatican II. (1960s)
“Humanae vitae” isn’t a Vatican II document, but it came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.
I see Vatican II as part what the Church has been doing recently, reviewing and revising our procedures and practices. It’s something we do on a massive scale every half-millennium or so. Procedures may change, our principles don’t, and I’ll get back to that.
Vatican II ran from 1962 to 1965.
Pope St. Paul VI wrote “Humanae vitae” in 1968. It’s an encyclical letter: a term whose meaning has been changing over the centuries.3 He addressed this particular encyclical letter to anybody who’s working for the common good:
Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae Of the Supreme Pontiff Paul VI To His Venerable Brothers The Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Other Local Ordinaries In Peace and Communion With the Apostolic See, To the Clergy and Faithful of the Whole Catholic World, and to All Men of Good Will, On the Regulation of Birth (Humanae vitae, Paul VI documents, The Holy See/vatican.va)
Back before I became a Catholic, I’d noticed that it’s addressed to “the whole Catholic world, and to all men of good will”, so I didn’t feel guilty about reading it.
Being an American, I could and can see several ways a sufficiently irritable person might find the encyclical’s heading offensive. And that’s yet again another topic
But now, being a Catholic, and one who takes what the Church says seriously, I figure that reading it made sense. And I still accept the encyclical’s rules.
That’s because I think obedience makes sense. I’d better explain what I mean.
Obedience and Using my Brain
I’m a Catholic, so “the obedience of faith” is important. (Catechism, 142-165)
This obedience is not blind obedience. I should think about what I believe. (Catechism, 154-156)
Which is something of a good news / bad news situation.
On the one hand, there’s a great deal to think about: and these days I’ve got access to translations of what folks like St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas thought about what we believe.
On the other hand, as a Catholic, I’m expected to think about what I’m doing. It takes effort, and sometimes means that I veto what my emotions are telling me.
Following whatever blind impulse pops into my mind is not an option. (Catechism, 2339)
Vatican II and “Humanae vitae” offended and upset a fair number of folks. I didn’t like what I found in “Humanae vitae”, so how come I accept what it says?
Natural Law, Positive Law, and Paying Attention
I wasn’t the craziest of ‘those crazy kids’, back in the 1960s.
But I paid attention to folks who said that buying stuff we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like wasn’t reasonable. Not that anyone actually defined having a successful career that way, and I’m drifting off-topic.
The point is that I paid attention, and thought about what I was hearing and reading. One idea that made sense was the notion that what’s legal isn’t necessarily right: and that a culture’s mores can be wrong.
As it turns out, that horrifying — to some — idea was right. Since I’m a Catholic, I see it as the difference between natural law and positive law.
Basically, ethical rules — natural law — are written into reality’s source code. It hasn’t changed, and won’t. Some things — not many, actually — are simply wrong. Always. Everywhere. (Catechism, 1950-1960)
Positive law is, in this context, the rules we make up:4 like which side of the road I should drive on, how old I need to be to vote, and whether or not I can vote.
Sometimes positive law lines up with natural law. Sometimes it doesn’t. When that happens, we’ve got problems. (Catechism, 2273)
Seeing Human Beings as People
“Humanae vitae” goes against the grain of my culture’s values and beliefs, partly because it insists that human life is important — all human life.
I’d better explain that.
Since I’m a Catholic, I think that we’re all people, that we’re made “in the image of God”. Who we are, who our ancestors are, or what we’ve done, doesn’t matter. Every human being is a person: no matter how young or old, health or sick, we are. And since it’s a gift from God, human life is precious, sacred. (Genesis 1:26–27, 2:7; Catechism, 355-357, 361, 369-370, 1700, 1730, 1929, 2258-2283)
A century and a half back, insisting that all human beings are people and should be treated as such inspired ardent opposition.
Some folks still seem overly aware of ethnic distinctions, and that’s still another topic.
Some of today’s hot-button issues involve, my opinion, differing views on whether or not very young human beings are, legally, people: real persons who should have a right to not be killed, even if their existence is inconvenient or bothersome.
Meanwhile, Across the Pacific
Speaker Prospero Nograles receiving HLI Archdiocese of Cebu’s 2010 Humanae Vitae Award.
“The Human Life International Archdiocese of Cebu confers on Speaker Prospero Nograles (right) the Humanae Vitae Award for his ‘unwavering support for the sanctity of life and family in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Constitution.’…” (“Humanae Vitae Award” , Photo Journals, Press and Public Affairs Bureau, House of Representatives, Philippines)
One of the things I like about being Catholic is that we’re an international outfit. That helps me appreciate good news in other countries. Like a politico in the Philippines receiving a Humanae Vitae Award: and apparently not trying to cover it up.
Don’t get me wrong. I like being an American, and think my native land has more to offer than Pepsi and SpongeBob SquarePants. But I get the impression that many of us are still getting used to the idea that Catholics and other ‘foreigners’ can be Americans.
And that’s — you guessed it — even more topics.
Next, an interview with our Father Greg on The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi. I found it on YouTube, and it does a better job of introducing him than I could.
Fr. Greg Paffel: The Journey Home Interview
Valuing Human Life: All Human Life
Finally, thinking that human life is precious affects how I see capital punishment, euthanasia, medical experiments, and more:
Former American president Donald Trump, shortly after being shot in Pennsylvania. (July 13, 2024)
Here’s how I learned that someone tried to kill Donald Trump.
Our number-two daughter and granddaughter were visiting over the weekend. We were talking about something entirely different when our number-two daughter looked at her smartphone — one of those things that connects whoever’s holding it to humanity’s social media and information services.
She said something like ‘oh! someone shot Trump’, and we went on with our conversation.
That was late Saturday. By Sunday evening, our son-in-law had finished business in southern Minnesota, spent a few hours with us, and set off with number-two-daughter and our granddaughter to their home in North Dakota.
Don’t get me wrong: I care about what happens in my country, and think that taking potshots at presidential candidates — or presidents — is a very bad idea. But I’m not obsessively focused on politics or politicos.
I hadn’t planned on writing more about Corey Comperatore, but his last words showed up in my news feeds today. “Get down!” isn’t particularly profound, but was eminently practical at the time.
“…In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, Helen Comperatore, the widow of Corey Comperatore, shared her husband’s last words, spoken as he shielded his family from bullets that ultimately took his life.
Corey Comperatore, who was killed while protecting his family.
I figure that what Wikipedia started calling “Attempted assassination of Donald Trump” will be in the news for at least most of this week.
Some news that I’ve seen so far has focused on a probably-mixed-up kid who winged Mr. Trump: and was promptly killed. By then, he’d wounded at least a couple other folks, and killed Corey Comperatore.
Other news pieces opined on the political angle of Saturday’s incident.
I’m not going to do either. Not today, at any rate.
Instead, I’ll share — I wouldn’t call it good news.
But seeing a little attention paid to someone who hadn’t been attacking a politician? That’s a nice change of pace.
Seems that Corey Comperatore was a project and tooling engineer. He had either been or maybe still was a volunteer firefighter. And he’d been the former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company.1
So much for my culture’s conventional summary of who someone is. Or, in this case, was. From where I’m standing, Corey Comperatore was also a husband and father who died while protecting his family.
“…State police and a SWAT team then began evacuating everyone in the bleachers. Joseph said that he helped officials carry the dead man off of the bleachers to a tent nearby and that officials put a towel over his head before they carried him off….
“…He said the man was facing Trump at the very far left part of the bleachers….
“…Joseph, an OB-GYN, said that he told police he could help render assistance but that police said they did not need him, so he helped with the man who was killed.
“He said that the man’s family was in the bleachers with him and that they were in shock and didn’t know what was going on. About five family members were there, two of whom were ‘hysterical,’ Joseph said. The family was taken to the tent with their deceased relative.…” [emphasis mine]
This Joseph deserves mention, too. He was there, helping a family deal with sudden death. I figure that’s a corporal act of mercy: which is Catholic-speak for giving practical help. Not that lending a hand with the body of a family member will make everything better.
“[Pennsylvania Governor Josh] Shapiro says he has been speaking to the families of the two people who were shot and are still being treated.
“He then goes onto [!] pay tribute to volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, who he says was killed last night and ‘dived on his family’ to protect them.…”
“…Mr. Shapiro said early Sunday afternoon that he’d spoken with Mr. Comperatore’s wife and daughters.
“‘Corey was a girl-dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday,’ the governor said, noting that he’d sought permission from Helen Comperatore to share their conversation. ‘He was so excited last night to be there with [Trump] and the community.’
“He said Ms. Comperatore wanted everyone to know that her husband died a hero. ‘Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally,’ he said.…” [emphasis mine]
And, finally, good for Pennsylvania’s governor, who apparently got the okay from the widow before saying good things about her husband.
Family, Country, and Priorities
Donald Trump and Secret Service, shortly after he was shot. (July 13, 2024) Evan Vucci’s photo, via AP.
Again, I care about what happens in my country. I think the election looming this November matters, and so does the national convention happening this week.2 But I don’t think it’s all that matters.
As the “original cell of social life”, family matters. But it shouldn’t be at the top of my priorities. That’s where God belongs. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2113, 2207)
On the other hand, I think Corey Comperatore did the right thing, protecting his family.
I regret, very much, that he died while doing so. Human life, all human life, is precious. And that’s another topic:
Surfside Beach, Texas: the main roadway, a stop sign, debris, and lots of water. (July 8, 2024)
Folks living in the Caribbean, Yucatan Peninsula, and south Texas are cleaning up after Hurricane Beryl. Some are also mourning those who didn’t survive the storm.
I haven’t been personally affected by Beryl, although my in-laws are in Louisiana, next state over. They seem to have been away from the worst weather, for which I’m grateful.
This week I’ll take a quick look at what happened, what the storm doesn’t mean, and — as usual — whatever else comes to mind.
“Hurricane Beryl struck Texas early Monday as a Category 1 storm and not only brought heavy rains … but also left over 1.9 million homes and businesses in the Greater Houston area without power….”
By Monday evening, the storm had killed more than a dozen folks. Nearly three million in Texas were without power, not a trivial issue during a Texas summer.
By one educated guess, rebuilding after Beryl will cost upwards of $6,000,000,000.
A fair chunk of that will be in Texas, since the storm went past Houston. But I strongly suspect that places like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will feel the cost more.
The good — or less-dreadful, at any rate — news for that island nation is that 10% of its buildings weren’t destroyed last week. It’s a bit like the 2021 La Soufrière eruption’s ‘good news’: Saint Vincent’s air and sea ports were at the other end of the island, but with the COVID-19 pandemic —1
I don’t think anyone’s feeling happy about Beryl. The known extent of loss and damage will just get bigger, as folks clear debris and take stock of their situations.
Beryl Impact by Country/Territory (as of July 8, 2024)
Disasters and Focused Wrath: No Noticeable Correlation
Beryl, seen from the GEOS-16 satellite, about three hours after landfall. (July 8, 2024)
So far, it doesn’t look like Hurricane Beryl has been worse than Katrina or Harvey, either in terms of deaths or property damage.
And I haven’t run across either an equivalent of the 1969 Camille hurricane party story, or a righteous rant like “Katrina: God’s Judgment on America”: posted anonymously in 2005, denouncing gambling and decadence.
With about a third of a billion people living here, and my country’s cultural history, I’d be surprised if someone hasn’t rung the changes on the our old ‘God Doth Wrathfully Smite Sinners’ theme.
Or done the same with our more up-to-date ‘Nature Rises in Wrath and We are Doomed’ attitude.
Each of those conventional explanations for calamities appeal, apparently, to some; but not me. Possibly because I don’t see strong correlation between folks who are behaving badly, and those who get hurt or killed in high-profile disasters.2
The Siloam Reminder
Someone whose opinion I value said that bad things happen. And when they do, it’s a reminder that straightening out my own life is prudent.
“At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. “He said to them in reply, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? “By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! “Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? “By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!'” (Luke 13:1–5)
That doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, or fill me with (self?) righteous confidence, but I think it makes sense. Death happens. Then I go through my particular judgment: a final performance review (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1021-1022)
I know that I’m not perfectly perfect, and that’s another topic.
Perspectives
Weather radar for continental United States. (July 8, 2024)
Hurricane Beryl formed earlier than any other recorded Category 5 Atlantic Hurricane.
It’s only the second one to form in July. They usually come later in the season.
Most of the biggest, worst, and most destructive hurricanes seem to have happened in the last few decades.
Taking my cue from a famous poet — or my country’s perennial doomsayers — I could cut loose with a new-and-improved version of this meditation on World War I, the Irish War of Independence, and the Trojan War —
“…Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity….” (The Second Coming“, W. B. Yeats (1919) via Wikipedia)
But I won’t.
Before I start talking about tropical cyclones and weather satellites, I’d better explain something.
I’m about as sure as I can be that Earth’s climate is changing, has been changing, and will continue changing.
Although I think Earth’s climate would keep changing even if we had continued living in ye good olde days of cholera and famine, I also think we’re affecting climate and weather.
With about 8,000,000,000 neighbors, many of us living in or near cities, I don’t see how we could avoid make a difference in how Earth’s air and water run through their cycles.
But I do not think we are doomed.
On the other hand, I do think that places like Korea, Japan, Spain, and Malta, will be having a rough time within the next few decades; no matter what the weather is like.
I don’t mind living in a country with a slowly growing population. Although it looks like 22nd century America will be less melanin-deficient.3 And that’s yet another topic.
It’s a Changing World
Tracks of all tropical cyclones, 1985-2005, Map by Nilfanion. (2006)
Hurricanes seem to have gotten much more common over the last few decades.
There was another sharp uptick, apparently, starting around 1500. I figure that’s because Columbus stumbled on what we call the Americas in 1492. After that, just about every European ruler and merchant was trying to get a piece of the trans-Atlantic action.
Some expeditions both ran into massive storms and survived.
Since knowing about storms correlates with survival, folks started keeping records of Atlantic weather, including hurricanes: looking for patterns.
Fast-forward to the 1960s, when the first weather satellites went online. These days, I can get an almost real-time look at weather from geosynchronous satellites.
This is not the world I grew up in. I think that’s a good thing in many ways. Partly because now we can see hurricanes forming, giving folks time to get out of the way or take shelter.
I figure our weather satellites and other new tech is why we have more recorded hurricanes now, but lower death tolls.
That makes more sense to me than imagining that Poseidon sent Beryl as punishment for having his statue in a lobby of the UN General Assembly Building. Good grief. That is crazy on so many levels.
Now, about hurricanes: our name for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic.
A tropical cyclone starts when humid air, warm seawater, and several other factors get together.4
So, yes: warmer tropical seawater will lead to more tropical cyclones. But at least some of the apparent increase in hurricane activity since my youth is due to our having better tech. We’re noticing and tracking more of the things.
Days, Millennia, and Planning Ahead
NOAA Map showing remnant of Beryl. (Wednesday noon. July 10, 2024)
Recapping: Hurricane Beryl broke several records. It caused death and destruction in the Caribbean, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Texas.
Beryl was downgraded to “tropical storm” Monday afternoon, July 8, 2024, By Wednesday it was moving through the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, heading for Ontario.
Like all hurricanes these days, Beryl was tracked from the time it formed.
Americans started an official Atlantic tropical cyclone record in 1851, but folks were jotting down details of major storms long before that.
For example, there’s the one that hit Haining in 251 A.D., just south of the Yangtze delta. Another killed around 10,000 folks in the Hong Kong area in 957.
Then there’s the new field of paleotempestology: a mouthful that’s our name for the study of tropical cyclones, using geological data and historical records. This helps folks like insurance underwriters, who need to know about an area’s storm history.
So far, researchers have charted out the western North Atlantic Ocean’s most recent eight millennia of tropical cyclone activity. One thing they’ve learned is that the average rate at which major storms hit any given spot — changes.
It looks like the region from New York to Puerto Rico was stormier than usual from 2,000 to 1,100 years ago. Then, starting 1,000 years back, that area and the Gulf Coast have seen comparatively few big storms.5
That’s cold comfort for folks who experienced Beryl.
But I think there’s some wisdom in remembering that the last few days, months, centuries, or millennia, aren’t all there is to humanity’s long story.
I also think that learning what the weather has been like recently is a good idea. It’ll be an even better idea, if we decide to use that knowledge. And plan ahead.
I’ve talked about storms, climate, and making sense, before:
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (AKA ENSO: “…a global climate phenomenon that emerges from variations in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean….”)
Madden-Julian oscillation (AKA MJO: “…the largest element of the intraseasonal (30- to 90-day) variability in the tropical atmosphere. It was discovered in 1971….”
1737 Calcutta cyclone (AKA Hooghly River cyclone of 1737, Great Bengal cyclone of 1737; the first super cyclone on record in North Indian Ocean)
1851 Atlantic hurricane season (first Atlantic hurricane season to be included in the official Atlantic tropical cyclone record: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 Atlantic Hurricane Catalog)
“There’s nothing quite so lovely as a brightly burning book”. The Hon:Mole MacCarony in Pogo. (March 30, 1953)
This isn’t the America I grew up in. But human nature hasn’t changed, and freedom of expression still makes some of us uneasy. I’ll be talking about that; and sharing a little family history that relates to the America of my youth.
Thompson Library, Ohio State U: bigger that the libraries I grew up with. Ibagli’s photo (2009)
My parents were both librarians, which may help explain my fascination with books and information in general. I think it also factors into how I feel, when the folks in charge try “protecting” us from information they don’t like.
Or go hunting for people whose opinions aren’t approved by the powers that be.
My father was head librarian at what’s now Minnesota State University Moorhead when earnest Americans like Senator Joseph McCarthy were “protecting” us from commies, fellow-travelers, and scientists.
Years later, he — my father, that is, I haven’t talked with senators — told me that he’d thought about destroying the library’s check-out records, since they showed who had read which books.
Happily, commie-hunters didn’t come looking for students and faculty with “subversive” reading habits.
Information, Attitudes, Access, and Me
Then we got the 1960s, and a whole new set of weirdnesses. That’s ‘my’ decade, when I was a teen and not on the same page as either the staunch defenders of yesteryear or folks who were following Timothy Leary’s advice.
More than a half-century has passed since then. Some folks around my age grew up, had successful careers, and are now part of The Establishment — top-drawer folks who think they know what’s best for the rest of us. Or act as if they do, at any rate.1
Me? I’ve been a sales clerk, flower delivery guy, researcher/writer, office clerk, computer operator, radio disk jockey, beet chopper, high school teacher; and finally advertising copywriter, graphic designer, and “computer guy” for a small publishing house.
My views have changed a bit over the decades.
But I still think folks should have access to information they can use. And I still think that expressing opinions is okay: even when they’re not sanctioned by the powers that be.
Free Speech, Social Media, and Perceptions
From my Google News feed: social media news items. (July 2, 2024)
“If speech is intended to result in a crime, and there is a clear and present danger that it actually will result in a crime, the First Amendment does not protect the speaker from government action.” (Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), Primary Holding, Justia (justia.com/)) [emphasis mine]
“…Words which, ordinarily and in many places, would be within the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment, may become subject to prohibition when of such a nature and used in such circumstances as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils which Congress has a right to prevent. The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.…” (Schenck v. United States. Baer v. United States. 439 Argued January 9,10,1919. Decided March 3, 1919. / p. 48. Library of Congress (loc.gov)) [emphasis mine]
Social media isn’t top of the charts in my news feed’s litany of dreadful dangers, malign menaces, and looming dooms. But it didn’t take me long to assemble a half dozen or so “social media” headlines.
I don’t know how many I’d have found, if I’d searched for “disinformation” articles.
Clarification time.
I think that “disinformation” — a potpourri, mishmash, whatever, of falsehood, truth, half-truth, and opinion, presented as unbiased reporting — really happens.
I strongly suspect that much “disinformation” is actually misinformation — alternatively-accurate information, and facts presented out of context.2
Misinformation, by that definition, is not deliberately deceptive. Folks reporting it don’t realize that ‘what everybody knows’ isn’t necessarily so.
From what’s in my news feed, I’m guessing that assorted politicos and do-gooders are at it again: and that this time they see social media as a threat.
Prepublication Censorship, a Near Miss
Fearing the Internet is not exactly new.
Maybe two decades back, I read that “net neutrality” would save the children and defend freedom. As presented, it sounded like the best thing since sliced bread.
Instead of rich folks and organizations having a louder online voice, Internet Service Providers would charge the same rates to everyone, no matter what content the customers put online. It sounded like a wonderful way of updating our rules about free speech.
Just one problem, and I’m relying on my memory here. I haven’t found recent documentation on a particular part of net neutrality that really got my attention.
All this talk about equal rates and free speech was well and good: but how could we save the children and defend freedom from Big Bad Bogeymen with naughty ideas?
The answer was simple: set up a government agency that would check content before allowing it online. That way, the American public wouldn’t be exposed to naughty ideas.
Since it was a government agency, it’d be completely unbiased, approving any and all content that was deemed proper for public perusal.
Nobody, certainly not folks pushing the idea, put it quite that way.
Attempted prepublication censorship didn’t surprise me. It’s an old idea.
What did get my attention was that the Christian Coalition and the Feminist Majority3 united in this effort to — presumably — save the children and defend freedom.
I think my country experienced a near miss when their “net neutrality” didn’t get traction.
Politics, Panic, and Principles
My country’s traditional election-year hysterics are in full cry.
I think the outcome matters. But I won’t echo either — any — side’s ardent assertions that [candidate A] will surely doom us all, while [candidate B] is above and beyond reproach. Or that you must vote for [candidate A], for otherwise [candidate B] will surely doom us all.
I suspect that politicos use wild claims and fearmongering because it’s easier to get votes when voters are too terrified to think.4 I’ve never been a fan of moral panic, I talked about that last month, and that’s another topic.
I was going somewhere with this. Let me think.
Reading habits and the Sixties.
Circumstances and censorship.
Politics and moral panic.
Right.
One reason I like living in America is that we can vote for a candidate: even if some judges disapprove of the person. I also like living in a country where we’ve got some respect for freedom of speech: and where rules about those freedoms are reviewed occasionally.
That said, I don’t think the way we run America’s government is the only right way.
There isn’t any one ‘correct’ form of government. Folks living in different cultures and eras have different needs, and that’s okay — If whatever system they use lets folks take an active part in public life, and the system follows natural law: ethical principles which apply in every time and place. (Catechism, 1915, 1957-1958)
Social Media: New Forum, Old Principles, and Being an American
Another reason I like being an American is that our government has (generally) maintained its respect for our freedoms.5
“Article the third — Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (United States Bill of Rights (1791) via Wikisource)
That won’t keep folks — well-intentioned and otherwise — from panicking when others, who aren’t the right sort, express “subversive” ideas.
And sometimes I figure the “subversive” ideas really are aimed at undercutting the common good — possibly with good intentions, and that’s yet another topic.
I might want tighter controls over who gets to express opinions online. — If I believed in the infallibility of experts and the divine right of congress to decide what we may and may not see.
But I figure that experts, journalists, members of congress, and judges are human beings: which is both good news and bad news, and that’s several more topics.
For now, I’ll be glad that folks like me are still allowed to share what we think. Even if we are doing so in a medium that didn’t exist when I was young. Again, that’s a reason I like an American.
If all this sounds familiar, it should. I’ve talked about it before:
“The Scientist as Educator and Public Citizen: Linus Pauling and His Era” Video: “Science in the McCarthy Period: Training Ground for Scientists as Public Citizens” Lawrence Badash; Special Collections, OSU Libraries; Oregon State University (October 29-30, 2007) via Internet Archive Wayback Machine
SCHENCK v. UNITED STATES. BAER v. SAME. Supreme Court. Argued Jan. 9 and 10, 1919. Decided March 3, 1919. via Legal Information Institute, Cornell University
3 It seemed like such a good idea — or — very strange bedfellows:
“…misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows….” (“The Tempest” , William Shakespeare (ca. 1610-1611) from 1863 Cambridge edition of Shakespeare, via Gutenberg.org)
Prior restraint (“The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject….”)
Master of the Revels (English official responsible for royal revels: and, from around 1580 to 1624, theatrical censorship)
Something new each Saturday.
Life, the universe and my circumstances permitting. I'm focusing on 'family stories' at the moment. ("A Change of Pace: Family Stories" (11/23/2024))
I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
I live in Minnesota, in America's Central Time Zone. This blog is on UTC/Greenwich time.
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Blog - David Torkington
Spiritual theologian, author and speaker, specializing in prayer, Christian spirituality and mystical theology [the kind that makes sense-BHG]
