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The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information

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Revel shows the major paradox of the 20th century. When we have a vast array of information at our fingertips, we simply overlook the truth out there and embrace the lies given. He shows that Democracies only thrive in an aura of truth but they will ultimately fail in a arena of lies. He poignantly shows how the politicians, scientists, educators and the media give up truth to follow their own agenda propagated by fallacies.

Our future depends "on the correct or incorrect, honest or dishonest use of information." "Formerly ignorance was the enemy, today it is falsehood." Communism and Nazism are both dead, hence it's an interesting point that the Left wants to keep Nazism "alive," so to speak; apparently to sustain the myth that the Right is the danger which we must remain vigilant against, as they continue to trumpet the notion of collectiveness and anti-capitalism under other guises; as well as the notion that enlightened government can transform society if given the power to do so. In a way this is to be expected: "A school of thought that knows it is in a state of decline struggles even more fiercely to preserve its identity." Revel is not at all surprised consequently that French textbooks even into 1980 continued to embellish Sovietism. (I'd add further that Hitler denunciations still out number anti-Stalin comments 1000-1. Moreover, how many films touching on Lenin or Stalin have been made? Why nothing on film about communism/Soviet brutality in Eastern Europe and the Baltics/ Soviet Gulags/Red terror wholesale murderings/show trials & Soviet anti-semitism...just to name a few subjects that are ignored while Nazi issues/characters/events feature in countless films.) But just because the French Revolution, and its communistic offspring, can be seen to have proved a failure (in Eastern Europe, the USSR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, North Korea, et al) doesn't mean fans of such states' 'motives' have reconsidered their inclined views. As Lauret Fabius, the former socialist prime minister of France, has put it: "Socialism is a direction." As long as it can claim anything supposedly positive (Castro's famed health system, for instance) it gets a pass on everything else. That's why Stalin always got the benefit of any possible doubts from those so inclined; and such explains the Left's silence when the Soviet Union singed a pact with Hitler, and later when it invaded Czechoslovkia, Hungary, & Afghanistan (all the while railing against the WEST over Pinochet's Chile and South African apartheid & other such states led by more Rightist governments). Last year on TV I saw a prominent author (Simon Winchester) toss an aside that "of course I have great admiration for the Rosenbergs." This notwithstanding the publication, just several years ago, of the "Venona" cables & Russian documents which conclusively prove that the Rosenbergs were traitors. Such is the epitome of Mr. Revel's point: "Arguments/disoveries are not imposed by intellectual conviction." Revel quotes Jonathan Swift in support of this notion: "You cannot reason a person out of something he has not been reasoned into." Such folks are simply going to hold onto their instinctive beliefs & society is going to simply have to wait them out. Revel compares the dyanamic to the developement of science. Scientific theories often do not triumph over other theories on facts, but rather by having the staying power to hold their own while the previous theories wither on the vine (and the previous theory adherents give way to a succeeding generation). In short, with all our developement in education, the accessibility of travel & information, etc., we as a people are not getting any wiser. Society is getting wiser, however, but unfortuantely at high cost. (The lesson of failed communism, of government not being able to transform society without recourse to terror, cost tens of millions of lives.) Things would be a lot easier, of course, if people tried using their own brains more. Once something fails over and over again it behooves us to recognize that fact and consider alternate means to achieve the goal at hand. Likewise, throwing money at problems that have made neglible progress with the wheebarrels full of funding that they have already received is simply not rational. How many times have you heard, "You know, you have a point there. Maybe I'm wrong & ought to reconsider this issue." Instead of taking /

Just started the book. Especially appreciate it because of the non-American perspective. Also, the relevance of media influence on public opinion, particularly, the spotlight on the deceit that misleads the gullible people who trust "talking heads" with hidden agendas. We need to develop a healthy skepticism of self-proclaimed experts who close their eyes to everything that doesn't fit their politically correct ideology. Any book that keys us to the practices that mislead us is worth our time. There is too much at stake for us to ignore the beguiling voices that conceal the truth about the evil in our world.