fasting at the grocery store.

“Look it up!”

the fog of war is a treacherous scenario. imagine being pinned down on the edge of of a tropical forest, your enemy taking shots at you from positions unknown. in this vacuum, every radio transmission is loaded with portent. “enemy troops headed toward your position.” “your flank is being compromised. evac now.” in an absence of tactical knowledge, the commanding officer hangs on every crackling word from his radio.

in situations like this, knowledge is survival. and in the absence of that knowledge, humans become superstitious. we unload our weapons at broken twigs. we internalize a dilemma we cannot fathom, and in many cases it helps us survive.

or imagine living under a internet blackout, without knowledge of the world outside your city, outside your country. imagine state media channels repeating night after night that the protests have ended peacefully, but the cellular networks remain jammed. would the silence be reassuring? would you feel safe?

knowledge is such a vital thing. with knowledge i can solve problems. i can evaluate expert opinion. i can even identify errors in my own assumptions, with enough effort. and in a world where  all human written knowledge is an internet search away, any mundane question i can think of can be immediately answered.

so why don’t  we ask? why don’t we pry apart every new contraption we see, and check expert opinion on every silly notion that crosses our minds?

if we live in the fog of war, why don’t we cling to the radio?

for me, the answer seems simple: life is not like war. usually, our ignorance is not of life-threatening import. and importantly, we don’t live under radio silence, but rather in an information deluge. we drown in our abundance, paralyzed by the many voices and opinions on our many channels and streaming services.

… but wait. is this a satisfactory answer?

why do we ignore information when it is so abundantly available? perhaps there is a better answer. perhaps we never learned to tighten the valves. perhaps we never learned media literacy.

information is vital; i refuse to accept otherwise. and as long as my friends and compatriots appeal to authority without an ounce of curiousity, i will continue to plead: “Look it up!”