I love research. I love learning and the process of transforming data into usable, understandable, reasonable, and verifiable information that builds knowledge that is fair, just, rational, and useful that ages well and becomes accepted wisdom. I read footnotes. I look up original sources. I care deeply about verification, documentation, reliability, and logic. I am a dinosaur. I am sinking quickly into the tar pits of anti-intellectualism, opinion-as-fact, extreme subjectivity, and conspiracy theory. No one bothers to check sources because fewer and fewer people even care. Our politics is a politics of rhetoric, not reason. Modern politicians bypass the head, tromping on the heart, to swing at the gut. Lying has become an artform; people don’t spurn liars; they seek to worship the greatest liars of all. Relying on good data, solid information, and a baseline of elementary school knowledge, are artifacts of a bygone day. Wisdom is traveling abroad; she is an undocumented immigrant no longer welcome in the United States. The majority of people screaming to take a side rarely know much that is true or useful about the side they are on, let alone the side they oppose (the majority of people calling for books to be banned (71%) have never read the offending titles. Politicians, business and religious leaders, media pundits deny saying things that were recorded and captured by multiple outlets, and mindless masses believe the prevaricator over the proof.

Why both continuing to do good research-based learning and development? The pandemic was/is a great example. Within days, some of the most highly trained, rigorously vetted, and intellectually skilled minds, hands, and hearts came together to respond to a global viral attack that could have been even more devastating than it was. More expertise and specialized skills have rarely assembled so quickly to do some of the most sophisticated research in history — and those with absolutely no knowledge or expertise shot down the resulting vaccines with nothing more than irrational opinion and ludicrous hyperbole that masked what actual limitations and concerns we should have been dealing with. Laypeople, with a political ax to grind, looking for followers and likes, made up a boatload of crap to put millions of lives at risk, all by intentionally and mindfully deciding to ignore the best research, information, and knowledge available.

And this was not limited to the poorly educated, those with limited intelligence, or lack of worldly experience. I had two very interesting conversations with a colleague of mine while serving on the cabinet. I made the comment that I am often frustrated by not being able to address issues of disagreement in a “reasonable and rational” way. (I was referring to a conversation I had with a woman who lamented that black people get all the breaks and that the worse racism was against the white middle class. Nothing I said could sway her opinion, and she degenerated into racial slurs and epithets.) A district superintendent replied, “but it depends on the definition of reasonable and rational. Just because she didn’t agree you doesn’t mean she wasn’t being reasonable and rational (yes, he knew what she had said). You just get defensive when people don’t agree with you.” Perhaps. But perhaps I get defensive when the cultural norms of civility, respect, and courtesy are denied and reasoned argument and information exchange are prohibited.

The second exchange came during the pandemic where we dealt with a pastor who was anti-vax, anti-mask, who insisted on visiting parishioners in nursing homes, but would not follow any of the mask-mandate rules. Her resistance was based in a disbelief that COVID was real and that no one had the right to tell her what to do. My response was that this was a pastoral opportunity – we don’t mask from self-interest, but from the impact it could have on others. I shared that I framed masking as “ethical and responsible.” My cabinet colleague snorted, looked at his Zoom camera (ah, lockdown meetings, how I do not miss you…), and said to all, “Just because someone disagrees with Dan Dick doesn’t mean they are unethical or irresponsible doesn’t make them wrong. It just means your definition of ethical and responsible is yours; one size doesn’t fit all.” My question back was, “So there are no objective standards and shared understandings of what is ethical and the difference between responsible and irresponsible?” “I am just saying that yours are no more ethical or responsible than hers, they are just different.”

Obviously, I disagree with my former colleague, and I do believe that we have some shared agreement about what constitutes “reasonable,” “rational,” “ethical,” and “responsible.” Being able to decide from an individual, self-serving, entitled, and privileged perspective what rules to follow, what laws apply, and what behaviors are acceptable, is not freedom, but tyranny. Even people who behave in such manner are quick to point out that these behaviors are unacceptable in others. The extreme and damning lie of modern libertarianism is that liberty is a personal and private thing, and that my liberty always takes precedent over anyone else’s liberty. The origin of the word we translate today as freedom came from the concept of “the capacity to make friends,” individual power to form strong relationships guarding and guaranteeing a common good. If there are no standards, if truth is subjective and opinion more important than fact, then anything goes, and we can do away with any kind of learning, growth, development, or proficiency. Each of us already knows everything we need to know, nothing left to learn.

It is disheartening to me that we see so many people in leadership positions who think open-mindedness means accepting and agreeing with whatever someone else has to say, no matter how ridiculous, egregious, insulting, damaging, or hurtful it may be. To be told that I shouldn’t be upset when I hear someone use the word “darkie” to refer to a black person just because I don’t think it is acceptable — and is being unfair to the person who thinks it is okay –does make me a little defensive. I actually believe there is a cultural standard for baseline ethical and responsible behavior. We make laws based on these shared values. Rational and reasonable are not abstractions. Is it irrational and unreasonable to take care of the planet on which we depend for life? No, most people will not argue that we should make the most of the planet we call home; how we should do that is debated every day, but the fact that without a livable planet we all are screwed is not much up for grabs. Talking with a farmer who is losing his farm due to actions taken by the politicians he voted for, he commented to me, “I thought I was being smart (rational and reasonable) listening to the promises and finally feeling heard by someone with power; come to find out I am dumb as a rock knowing deep inside it was all b#!!s#!+ and lies told to me to get my vote (irrational and unreasonable), and I fell for it.”

I am concerned. As a researcher and a reader, I care deeply about honest reporting, reliable information, careful documentation, and a breadth of credible sources. It drives me to distraction that our media – corporate, social, anti-social – has all but abandoned veracity, truth-telling, and integrity. Poorly written, poorly researched, and poorly conceived conspiracy books become best-sellers. Partisan publishing is every bit as toxic and unreliable as partisan politics. We used to value knowledge, and depended on it to help create a sustainable and vibrant society. The information became king/queen where pedigree and potential were vitally important. Once again, information was used to build up, not to tear down; a tool rather than a weapon. But now we just worship data — raw, undigested, non-processed goo that we can mold and shape any way we want to, making it say whatever we like, with no concern for the damage such disregard and – dare I say it – irresponsibility it involves. It boggles my mind that so many people are content to set their foundation on a bubble of gas that has no real substance or bedrock. Saying something doesn’t make it true; and individual opinion doesn’t shape reality. We have got to regain a communal sense of self. Our healthiest identity is corporate, not separate. If we don’t resurrect a regard for solid knowledge based on good information, we will pay a terrible price. If we don’t stand together our only option is to fall apart.