Mother Maturity and My Distaste for Conspiracy Theories

      The data.gov website is such a wonderful resource that I didn’t know about until this course. As a current employee of a public library, this is an essential database to know about, and I’m a little disappointed that it hasn’t been something I could have utilized sooner. We get a lot of patrons who come in to read Consumer Reports; so many that they are for reference use only and cannot leave the main section of the library. I have had more than one patron come in asking for information about certain products and the best way to find information about said products; I'm glad I now have this resource to offer; it will be a great aid in finding the best information for patrons needs. 

      There is always a potential danger to information; or rather, too much information. I think the problem lies in our ability to handle the loads of information, good and bad, that we are bombarded with everyday. Aunt Frailty doesn’t want any information because she is ‘frail,’ or too weak to handle it. Cosmopolitanism has absorbed too much information, and doesn’t know how to sort out what’s good, true, or right. Mother Maturity is the perfect medium; she realizes that there is a limit to how much information we can take, and when it can be absorbed. That is why she lets her children listen to some of it, and to experience the gifts that are generally unavailable in their everyday lives. On a personal level, I definitely need a happy medium. There are times when I read news often throughout the day, about a variety of subjects. Then I become upset because there is so much that is wrong in our world that I can do nothing about, and I get despondent over feeling so helpless. Stepping away from a constant surge of information is good and necessary; but never knowing anything, never being engaged in our society and all the information it has to offer is just as bad as being over-sensitized.

      I spent a embarrassing amount of time reading articles on Project Censored. The sensible part of me feels like Project Censored is a cesspool of conspiracy theories by people who have some sort of convoluted idea that our government is capable of so much secrecy. I’m not saying the government is incapable of keeping anything secret, but I really don’t think the deceit is as dire as some people believe it to be. The skeptical part of me wants to believe that at least some of these news stories are fact, because why would someone write things just to stir up trouble? But the more I read, the more I get a sense of fear mongering. I just can’t and won’t believe that if much of the information they are reporting is true, that it wouldn’t be reported somewhere, ANYWHERE else. I do not believe that the government is out to get me, and this website is too ‘fear Big Brother’ for me to take very seriously. As a librarian in training, I always try to give some benefit of the doubt to any source of information I find, whether in print or digital. But I’m not so sure about this one…I guess the biggest thing it has going for it is an ongoing thread of criticism. The textbook talks about the idea that criticism is essential for a transparent society to be held accountable for its actions, rules, and regulations. Criticism is great: it’s what drives our government to govern better, and citizens to be more engaged. But criticism of things that are untrue, or unimportant, is a waste of time, energy, and resources. I think it also ruins reputations.