|
July 06, 2006
Skepticism and other life and death issues
A lot of people don't trust Wikipedia, and here's a perfect example of why: The death of former Enron chief Ken Lay on Wednesday underscored the challenges facing online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which, as the news was breaking, offered a variety of causes for his death.By its nature, Wikipedia is a dream come true for promoters of conspiracy theories or crackpot ideologues. It's just a fact of online life that misinformation can take on a life of its own, and it's just all the more reason that Wikipedia entries -- especially those on recent or controversial matters -- should be taken with a grain of salt. Skepticism and common sense is the rule, and it's worth remembering that if something looks too good to be true, it often is. Still, I use Wikipedia a lot -- especially to provide background on historical matters that are largely uncontested. As to recent or controversial matters, the more time people have had time to hash things out, the more information will have accumulated on Wiki -- along with links -- which often means no particular viewpoint will be able to maintain permanent ideological hegemony. For example, this excerpt from a post about Yasser Arafat's death provides both "sides" of the AIDS speculation: In September 2005, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that French experts could not determine the cause of Arafat's death. The paper further quoted an Israeli AIDS expert who claimed that Arafat bore all the symptoms of AIDS, a hypothesis later rejected by the New York Times. Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, personal physician of Arafat for the past 20 years, later declared that nothing in Arafat's medical report mentioned the existence of such a disease. Another "senior Israeli physician" claimed in the Haaretz article that it was "a classic case of food poisoning", probably caused by a meal eaten four hours before he fell ill on October 12 that may have contained a toxin such as ricin rather than the standard bacterial poisoning. However, in the same week that the Haaretz report was published, the New York Times published a separate report also based on access to Arafat's medical records which claimed that it was highly unlikely that Arafat had AIDS or food poisoning. Both Haaretz and the New York Times further speculated that the cause of death may have been an infection of an unknown nature or origin. However, rumors of Arafat's poisoning have remained popular especially in the Arab Community, but also in the rest of the world. Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, which also follows the Hashemite kings, lamented the fact that the leader's wife Suha had refused an autopsy, which would have answered many questions in the case. Calling for the creation of an independent commission to carry out investigations concerning Arafat's suspicious death, dr. al-Kurdi declared to Haaretz on September 9, 2005 that "any doctor would tell you that these are the symptoms of a poisoning" 3.Yes there are links, but I don't have time to fill them in; you want the juicy details, go to the Wiki article. I use Wiki to provide background -- not truth! It is what it is, and it is often quite helpful. I think it's even helpful to know what partisan ideologues and crackpots are thinking, but skepticism is of paramount importance. Anyone who thinks Wikipedia = truth needs to start with a course in basic logic and then move to common sense. (The problem is that the latter cannot be taught.) I also like Wiki because in general, the links linger over time. There's nothing more infuriating than spending hours finding a link to something I feel is important in one of these posts, only to discover when go back a year later because I need the cite again that the site is gone and some damned XXX swinging singles popup site is in its place! Wiki has never done that to me or my readers, and I appreciate it. But what about the fact that any kook can come along and post nonsense? That's bad, right? Well, let's take a typical crackpot conspiracy theory -- the 9/11 Bush-blew-up-the-towers stuff. Many people (including me) have lamented the fact that this found its way into Wiki -- but which is worse: the fact that a crackpot can manage to insinuate his theory into a Wikipedia article, or the fact that a leading American university would hire -- as a "professor" -- a crackpot promoting the very same theory? Isn't it better to be able to express skepticism and laugh at the theory online than shell out a hundred grand to have it taught to your son or daughter in a classroom and regurgitated at the family Thanksgiving dinner table (amidst particles of reflux from Margaret Cho's anti-Thanksgiving prayer)? The optimist in me would hope that Wikipedia might just encourage skepticism in a young mind in advance of encountering such a professor. Might not a skeptical mind be a harder thing to indoctrinate? UPDATE: Commenter Mike mentions some scathing comments on the occasion of Ken Lay's death which can be found here. I'll say. Here's a sample: Death by heart attack, in ASPEN of all places, was too easy and dignified for Ken Lay. He was a convicted felon and he should have died IN PRISON, preferably by hanging, burning, beheading, gassing, electrocution, dismemberment or (ideally) all of the above simultaneously, but if by natural causes then at least by something that involved long and painful suffering, like cancer unrelieved by expensive treatments that our taxes should not have to pay for. Justice will not be complete until Ken Lay's widow, children and grandchildren are all stripped of all their property and reduced to the life of migrant farm workers.Nice, but might he have gotten some better ideas from the Classical Values "What ancient form of execution would you LEAST prefer" poll? But really, wouldn't Lay's death by torture have also been too lenient? As the commenter suggests, why should Ken Lays wife and children get off scot-free? After all, don't we believe in inherited guilt in this country? I think the author of the above (one "TomHillinMass") has the right stuff to be a college professor today! posted by Eric on 07.06.06 at 08:13 AM
Comments
The comments on this blog post are scathing: http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/07/05/ken-lays-death-provides-shocking-moral-lesson/ Mike · July 6, 2006 04:41 PM |
|
March 2007
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
March 2007
February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
War For Profit
How trying to prevent genocide becomes genocide I Have Not Yet Begun To Fight Wind Boom Isaiah Washington, victim Hippie Shirts A cunning exercise in liberation linguistics? Sometimes unprincipled demagogues are better than principled activists PETA agrees -- with me! The high pitched squeal of small carbon footprints
Links
Site Credits
|
|
I've always just wondered how many people with a fully formed idea in their mind of what Enron was about actually understood what actually happened.
From the things happening at Wikipedia, the answer is clear: Not a farging soul.