Almost 600 years ago, the printing press was invented, putting more information in the hands of the common man than ever before in history. Immediately, concerns about “fake news” began to grow. Yeah, this controversy has been around a long time, long before the advent of social media. No matter how hard the Catholic church tried to regulate and control the spread of information, it was too late. There was no way to put the genie back in the bottle and the world changed forever.
Today, with the internet advancing the spread of information the way the printing press did, we find ourselves struggling with the same questions. The social media giants fumble and bumble to prevent the spread of misinformation. Leftists on capital hill scream for more censorship and conservative new media cries foul.
How do we prevent mass deception in a world where deception can travel at the speed of light, to billions all at once? Most in Silicone Valley seem to believe the answer is targeted algorithmic suppression of certain points of view. Leftists believe we need codes against “hate speech.” Many conservatives and classical liberals believe that only unfettered freedom of speech can defeat error and misinformation.
They’re all wrong.
Wisdom from a centuries-old story
I think the answer can be found in the wisdom of people who wrestled with these issues centuries ago, after Gutenberg invented his revolutionary press. In the year 1590, the reformation had passed. The church was splintered into countless tiny factions, and all of them were furiously working the presses. Pamphlets of misinformation and heresy were too numerous to count and too widespread to contain. And in the 16th century, these conflicts were not just limited to nasty Facebook fights. People were literally killing each other over these arguments- and in brutal ways. In that same year, a man named Edmund Spenser wrote his allegorical epic The Faerie Queen.
Don’t let the fanciful title fool you. This is a tale full of monsters, horror, sex, battles, and sorcery. It is also a deeply Christian work that greatly influenced John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. It is in this work that I think we find a bit of wisdom that may help us with today’s dilemma.
The hideous monster
The first book of this epic tells of the knight Redcrosse who is sent on a quest to kill a dragon, accompanied by a maiden named Una, who represents Truth. While on his quest, he gets sidetracked and finds himself in the den of a horrific half-snake, half-woman monster named “Error.” The monster Error spews a black vomit consisting of ink and paper. In her cave, she has thousands and thousands of children who feed off of her. Are you starting to get the on-the-nose symbolism here? If Spenser had written his tale today, he might have named the beast “Twitter.”
There is a lesson for us in how Redcrosse defeats this monster. In the story, he dons the armor of God, which reflects sunlight into the cave and blinds the beast. This gives him the opportunity to draw his sword and cut off her head. In a gruesome scene, all the offspring in the cave begin to gorge themselves on Error’s inky blood. Great bedtime story for the kiddos.
We can’t eliminate fake news, but we can render it ineffective.
In the tale, Redcrosse doesn’t concern himself will the legion of Error’s offspring in the cave. He also doesn’t defeat Error on his own strength. He acts as a conduit for blinding sunlight, and strikes a killing blow only after listening to the advice of Una, “adding Faith unto his Force.”
Censorship will not protect us. Even if it did, it would be immoral. Freedom is too precious and the internet is here to stay. Fake news, misinformation, error, or whatever you want to call it, can only be defeated by people inoculated by faith, and who love the truth. Lovers of truth and followers of God don’t blindly accept information that is fed to them. They have an inner light that helps them discern reality from falsehood.
We can never rid the world of all errors, but like Redcrosse, we can make them ineffective. We do this when we pass down our faith to our children; teaching them to love the truth and think critically. If we manage that, it won’t matter how many falsehoods vie for their attention. They will only need to don that armor and reflect that light.
So Zuckerburg, Dorsey, relax. Take your family to church this Sunday. Some perspective will do you good.
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