A student who is still undecided about the election just dropped by my office. Her main "excuse" is that she figures everyone is lying or at least spinning, so why believe any of them. Fair enough. But you can believe me: Vote for Kerry!!!! There, does that settle it for you all?
Seriously, though.... This is an extremely important question, and one that as historians we face all the time. We all have to choose whom to believe, we have to figure out ways to interpret what we read and hear. And this is an issue we will be discussing all semester in Historical Methods. By what guidelines do we make those judgements?
But it is also something we do everyday as people. We rely on the guidance of others who know more, whether it is the supermodel who sells us (via the television) our beverage of choice or the cop on the corner who gives directions to the nearest house of worship. And it is also our everyday duty as citizens of a democratic republic. Yes, democracy is messy and smelly and tiring, but we have to do the dirty work of slogging through the crapola and ferreting out the information that will make us informed enough to govern this country. Just because our democracy is becoming less so every day, and the crapola is packaged and sold to us as "Craptacular!!!", all the more reason to suffer through the painful reading of the New York Times everyday and the listening to reasoned and informed analysis on NPR everyday. Not to mention the heavy burden of having to read this blog everyday. Who knew I was so prolix?
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