HOW IMPORTANT ARE BOOKS? ASK TROY AIKMAN ABOUT THE VALUE OF FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE

HOW IMPORTANT ARE BOOKS? ASK TROY AIKMAN ABOUT THE VALUE OF FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE

“If you haven’t “been there, done that” the best you can hope for is accurate information from those who have. If you rely on third, fourth or fifth hand information to make your decisions, you will undoubtedly be misled, perhaps even intentionally misled. Books are hard to alter with the winds of social and cultural change. Reading books written as close to actual events as possible will provide insights you cannot get otherwise.” J Loren Norris

​I LOVE BOOKS - THE OLDER THE BETTER
I am sure that loving old books makes me a freak of some sort. But, books are a resource of documented information. Back in the day, even as recent as twenty years ago, getting a book published was no easy task. Publishing was a tightly guarded industry. Anything that made it to the printed page was scrutinized, evaluated, validated, and reevaluated. It was near impossible to compose pages upon pages of lies and deception and get it into print, unless you owned the press. The further one goes back in time, the texture, complexity, and depth expressed in writing seems to deepen. Writers today, write for a seventh grade reading level. A century ago that was not the case.

CAVEAT- CONFESSION
I do not want you to think I am naive. I am well aware that as far back as human history is recorded, there have always been more sides to the story than one. This would imply, even the first recorded moments help within them opinion, arguments, differing perspectives and likely differing narratives. It is for this reason, a reader must read more than one angle, regardless how old the material. I know very few, if any humans, whose expressions are without the tinge of opinion based on their own personal experiences. I am certain, Mark Twain and his companions on the river would have told the same story differently. It is for that reason, we must seek out the other side of the story to find balance.

EVEN IN PRINT THERE IS A CONTROLLED BIAS
Consider the twin truths just expressed:
Getting Published is Hard
There Is Always More To The Story
These two realities imply an underlying potentially for insidious behavior. It is one of the implications of “institutional racism”. Whoever holds the key to the publishing world, ie music world, media world, education world, controls the stories which are told. This does not always mean bias or discrimination is present, but it sure makes it possible and even highly likely.

THE TRAP OF GOOD NEWS
The good news is this. Today, anyone with an idea, opinion or story to tell has access to share their stories. The internet and social media are accessible even in controlled areas such as Cuba, Russia, and Venezuela. The most depressed places on earth like the Congo have cell phone stores and millions of users on social media. If you have an idea, you have a voice.

An opinion shared on social media, a video which goes viral can often amass MORE VIEWS IN 24 HOURS than the best selling 100 books have in their lifetime since first print. If you shout loud enough and gain enough attention, it doesn’t matter if your facts are wrong or your opinion is dangerous and unfounded. You have access the publishing world might have denied you.

EVERYONE HAS A VOICE
This is a double edged sword. Like the tweet which cost a man his livelihood after a vague photo and a false accusation went viral (because the person tweeting it called out several news agencies and companies in the tweet) and created a huge storm of controversy. The person tweeting later recanted the accusation, closed the Twitter account, tried to undo the damage, but it was too late. Cancel culture worked. A man who was working hard to support his family has now been labeled and publicly humiliated. Gaining employment after being terminated for the unproven accusations will be very difficult. Fighting the wrongful termination will be costly. WHO IS THE VICTIM? The one who thought they saw what they didn’t see or the family who has been financially devastated because EVERYONE HAS A VOICE?

Books don’t do that.
Old books were filtered by Attorneys to avoid libel cases. Old books were written by people who did their homework first. Old books may not be entirely without opinion, but they are far less likely to be laden with emotional reaction without time to think it through.

What will our Information Age be like when social media assassins find the value of print? How many “hit pieces” will we see then? We already see them in very quickly released “documentaries” which are laden with political manipulation and propaganda...

Leading Leaders Podcast is a short but impactful leadership video, blog and podcast distributed 5 days a week by J Loren Norris to promote faith, family and freedom in the face of a global leadership drought.

www.jlorennorris.com/storypower
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