I’m part of the late Baby-Boomer generation…Too young to have been a true hippie, or to have really marched against Vietnam or for Equal Rights. But influenced by the movements of the times, from JFK to Selma and Vietnam to Watergate, all of those things were painted into my background.
As an introspective, slightly overweight kid, I discovered reading early to expand my imagination and knowledge. Back then, if you had a question about any subject, you could ask your parents or teachers or go to the library or encyclopedia and look it up. Like most of my peers, I am continuously in awe that a simple query on my portable device can answer almost any question I can think of. Our children will grow up with that knowledge base to build on, but like us laughing when our parents were amazed by a VCR or ‘a phone you carry in your pocket!!!,’ the magic of the moment will not be apparent to them.
As technology has accelerated throughout the past 50 years, so has the pace of learning in and out of school. Hard to tell if this is good or bad for the planet. You would think that all that information and the mostly equitable access to it by all levels of society would answer many questions completely forever, enshrining the truth where everyone could clearly find it. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
Much like ‘freedom of speech’, when you open the floodgates of information, the truth is in there, along with billions of opinions, untruths, propaganda, dark webs, bigotry, and every other messy thought that is a part of the human experience. Sorting through this data and trying to understand it, or manipulate it, is the engine that will define existence from here on out, I’m afraid.
As ever, the truth becomes a precious commodity in this world of ‘fake news’ and AI-generated content, and a discerning and cynical eye and ear will be required to find reality around every corner. Recent developments have produced AI ‘photographs’ virtually indistinguishable from true images. On the sound front, a few simple questions, ‘make a song in the style of Frank Sinatra, sung with the voice of Betty Boop, with a Slash guitar solo’, can almost instantly create just such a piece of ‘art’. And we are in preschool as far as this technology goes.
I find myself looking to history to find as much truth as possible. As time passes, certain things are laid bare, and hot-blooded emotions cool to reveal facts that show the actual unfolding of things. I have found a couple of documentaries on Netflix recently that underline this for me.
First is ‘Medal Of Honor’ produced in 2018 with big-time Hollywood production values and in most cases the real-life subjects being interviewed about their exploits on what was the worst day of their life. Unlike many other docs, each hero is painted in a thorough retelling of not only their heroic actions but their experience before and after the Wars.
Case in point, the episode about WWII Sergeant Edward Carter illuminated not only his incredible effort but the truth about the African-American soldier that is only now coming into the light. The American Army was a segregated Army through the first years of the war, only allowing black combat troops to participate in the waning stages, especially in Europe. The racism and Jim Crow mindset were so deep that Carter’s CO didn’t even try to put him in for the Medal of Honor in 1945, despite his overt heroism because it would be rejected because ‘no Negro could win the MOH”. How bad was it? Thousands of German POWs were sent to the American South to camps where they would be guarded by black GIs. When occasionally on work outings, groups of POWs would be taken to eat at a cafe, the Nazis would be served graciously, while the AMERICAN troops, had to eat outside in the street. Bill Clinton ordered a commission to remedy unsung heroes overlooked because of racism, and in 1997, Edward Carter was rightfully awarded the Medal of Honor.
I didn’t know any of that. The truth. Hidden for various reasons by those embarrassed or ashamed enough to overlook ugly things that are just as much a part of the American Experience as hot dogs, George Washington, and apple pie.
The second documentary on Netflix that shattered my concept of ‘the truth’, is called “Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial”. I know. What could there possibly be after 80-plus years that we do not know? Turns out, so much of the story is just coming to light now.
This is a remarkable documentary using actual footage intercut with re-creations, original audio, and transcripts from the Nuremberg trials of 1945-46. It uses the extensive reporting of correspondent William L. Shirer, who authored perhaps the definitive history of the Nazi Party, ‘The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich’. Against any metric, it is closer to the truth than any other source.
I urge you to watch both of these sources of information. We live in an unprecedented, magical time of knowledge, teaching, and multiple sources to sort through. The truth is never ‘fluid’; It can be obscured. But it is out there.
I continue to be thirsty for knowledge. All parts of the human experience interest me and I do not think you can stop learning or know too much. Born into a generation partially defined by a man on the Moon, I still believe humankind can transcend any of the massive problems that face all of us. With a tsunami of facts mixed with opinion, conjecture, history, and sometimes, pure evil, it is vital for each of us to filter this unprecedented deluge of data, and find truth, even if it is not what we were expecting.