Don't Believe Everything You Read

Don't Believe Everything You Read


Of late I have been reading a collection of Blogs that come to my email address every morning.

They are basically political in the sense that the person putting the collection together is picking them for political reasons. He/she is "grinding a personal axe" of course, but interestingly is including both sides of some parts of it. There frequently are copies or excerpts of newspaper articles with opposing viewpoints or Perceptions of what happened in a public situation; often supported with a different set of "facts."

There is nothing new about this; after all, people have been gathering actual "facts" to support different positions, since the dawn of communication. What bothers me is the perception I have formed, that a larger segment of our population is accepting these "facts" than I thought was the case years ago. The perception has formed in the process of perusing reader comments posted with this blog collection. Is it possible that we have been given so many incorrect or unchecked "facts" by the media over the years, that we now believe anything we read, or hear?

Our children do not accept everything they read or hear. The do not because Amy and I taught them not to; we did it by telling them that anyone can write anything they wish, true or not, and by their seeing us question things in publications, and school textbooks. They saw us check the purported facts by looking things up in encyclopedias, our five-inch thick family dictionary, and in competing publications. Why did Amy and I do this? Because we had been taught to do it, in our homes and schools.

Mother and Dad repeatedly admonished my sister and I, not to believe everything we read.

"Just because it is in the paper or a book, does not mean it is true."

That was repeated at home and, believe it or not, in school, over and over again. My teachers all taught us that, beginning as I remember it, in about the first year of high school. My history teacher would quote from different history texts to show us that History is subject to being rewritten, because "professors of history must write books in order keep their jobs." She had her own set of books, old and worn, that had what she believed were the facts, the true ones. In almost every one of my high school classes, you would earn the wrath of the teacher if you quoted something from the paper and had not checked it out in other sources. The library was where you would be sent to check out the facts and write a report of what you found there.

In my selling career I have found it very helpful, to check out the "Facts" in my own and my competitor's sales brochures, even their company annual reports. Knowing which "facts" were valid and being able to show how I had determined that, was instrumental in my success in selling. It made me a Professional, in my customers and competitors minds.

"Don't believe everything you read" may be the deep down reason I use true stories in my Zingers and in The Perception Of A Difference, books. None of them "tell you anything." You decide what makes sense as you read and apply them to your own daily situations.

Thanks for letting me share thoughts with you.

Wes Zimmerman