The more you know ...

One of the many things I've learned over the years as a journalist and writer (two different things, you know) is that more information is a sure way to create confusion. We are all so good at snap judgements and we wind up with our worlds set pretty firmly in place. Then we come across more information.

I look across the political debates going on today and think about my time as a reporter and what it was like to see that whole process up close. Pretty ugly actually. Truth is, these folks are actually, in many cases, far worse than we suppose they are. And that's quite sad.

The recent debates and accompanying high-dollar attacks show us that the more we know the less we understand in many ways. Or, perhaps, the question isn't really about how much we know but, rather, how well we understand it and turn it into something thoughtful.

We've reached a point where everybody comes to the table with his or her own set of facts. We've stopping seeking understanding and have turned our focus purely to seeking confirmation that what we thought before we knew anything is true even in the face of facts that get in the way of the world being as we want it to be. We hear but we don't listen. We look but we don't see.

I've often wondered why writers who are the most economical with words are the most powerful with their words. On the day Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address there was another speaker who was the "headline" act and who gave a speech that was several times longer than Lincoln's simple one written on the back of an envelope. I can't remember that other speaker's name. But I can sure remember the things Lincoln wrote on the back of that envelope when faced with the memory of that huge bloody clash at Gettysburg.