aka Ken Smith: The order changes the meaning

Wednesday October 6, 2021; 8:57 PM EDT

The order changes the meaning#

In a recent conversation, the topic of trusting information came up. Maybe it was said like this:#

How do I know what information to trust?#

Of course that's a good question. Historians ask it all the time, don't they? I said something like that in reply.#
But the conversation was quietly unsettling or unresolved. How do I know what information to trust? -- that felt like an expression of frustration. It was cast as a question but it felt like an outburst of surrender. It felt like the last word. A dead end has been reached.#
But if historians ask the question, it's not the last word, it's an introspective word, an invitation to critical thinking, to practice the craft. Putting it that way feels like the beginning of something that may in time get somewhere.#
It can only be the beginning of an inquiry if a person has the tools at hand to make that inquiry. Has some faith in the craft. Has some time to commit. Has practiced with the tools.#
It does not escape my notice that politicians that employ propaganda methods are likely very happy when listeners give up searching for truth, in frustration. Those who flood the zone with nonsense are aiming for this result, aren't they?#
The best question should be typed in at the top of the first page. But we don't always know what the best question is for a while. So revision requires that we move the best question to the top. Give it priority. #
When we're accustomed to really asking a question, not just using the form of a question to burst out in frustration, there's hope. The order completely changes the power of asking a question. Makes a question a real question.#
We get better at spotting a series of words being taken seriously, being taken as a real question. It's not the ? mark at the end, it's the tools arranged nearby for use in trying out an answer.#
It's the sentences that follow a question that make a question a real question. Or chanting slogans or silencing the voices of others, the sentences that follow may just pretend.#

Wednesday October 6, 2021; 8:57 PM EDT

The order changes the meaning#

In a recent conversation, the topic of trusting information came up. Maybe it was said like this:#

How do I know what information to trust?#

Of course that's a good question. Historians ask it all the time, don't they? I said something like that in reply.#
But the conversation was quietly unsettling or unresolved. How do I know what information to trust? -- that felt like an expression of frustration. It was cast as a question but it felt like an outburst of surrender. It felt like the last word. A dead end has been reached.#
But if historians ask the question, it's not the last word, it's an introspective word, an invitation to critical thinking, to practice the craft. Putting it that way feels like the beginning of something that may in time get somewhere.#
It can only be the beginning of an inquiry if a person has the tools at hand to make that inquiry. Has some faith in the craft. Has some time to commit. Has practiced with the tools.#
It does not escape my notice that politicians that employ propaganda methods are likely very happy when listeners give up searching for truth, in frustration. Those who flood the zone with nonsense are aiming for this result, aren't they?#
The best question should be typed in at the top of the first page. But we don't always know what the best question is for a while. So revision requires that we move the best question to the top. Give it priority. #
When we're accustomed to really asking a question, not just using the form of a question to burst out in frustration, there's hope. The order completely changes the power of asking a question. Makes a question a real question.#
We get better at spotting a series of words being taken seriously, being taken as a real question. It's not the ? mark at the end, it's the tools arranged nearby for use in trying out an answer.#
It's the sentences that follow a question that make a question a real question. Or chanting slogans or silencing the voices of others, the sentences that follow may just pretend.#

Last update: Wednesday October 6, 2021; 9:13 PM EDT.