Hey, what’s the world? The whole world? What’s it made of? Anyone?
I don’t mean geology and volcanology and sh–. I mean socially. Societies. The collective, intertwined societies that fall under the different classes of government—democracy, theocracy, autocracy, you name it. You’re going to find significant differences in each one, but you’re also going to find that they are what they are due to a few, overlapping reasons. Sometimes only a single one. Anyone know?
It’s there in the news. Kind of. Do you read it? ‘No’ is fine, too. Just making a segue here.
Like any subject you engage in the study of, reading the news is a means to an end. The end is better understanding—or the most understanding as is possible at the current state of the research—of a subject. But “the news” isn’t considered its own field of study, like Canadian Studies would be, say. Or the Law of the Sea. The field is the world. The contemporary world. And what’s going on, how it works.
And frankly, merely reading the news will bring you a pretty sh—y understanding of it.
That’s because reading the news is only one avenue of study. In undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education, you’ve got classes, homework and testing, sure, but you’ve also got lab work, field work, outside reading, lecturing yourself, poster presentations, etc. In the study of the world’s one great, big society, on top of reading the news, further study includes: reading more news, reading even more news (from different sources), reading books by scholars, by insiders, by journalists, reading interviews, reading reports. There’s also understanding what data comes from those with ulterior motives, those who are trying to sell you something, those who want to disinform you. Like in any higher-level education system, you have to learn to think critically.
Which doesn’t mean disbelieve what people tell you when it contradicts what you think you already know. That’s not a facet of learning. That’s just stupidity.
And when I talk about the world’s one great, big society, I’m not talking about sociology or anthropology, either. Or political science. All those fields miss the mark we’re shooting for, here.
So, what’s the whole world made of? I really don’t know. Like no physicist will ever conduct an experiment with an existing margin of error, however small, no one will ever actually know…anything about anything, really. But the more I read of the world, and speak to people, the more I realize the data is funneling me toward the realization that the outer core only consists of a few, crucial components.
The acquisition of power, land. Eradicating people who stand in the way of that. Companies wanting more profits. People who have power and money who just want more. Those people when they go to trial, lie. Do whatever they want to. Governments dictating, legislating: writing up bills, passing those bills into law, failing to pass those bills into law. Crime. Poverty. Enforcers of the law committing questionable acts: crimes, manslaughter.
And, of course, encouragement to keep buying things with the money you have. Or don’t.
It’s all what makes the best news, anyway, isn’t it?
