Trust but Verify

“Trust but verify.” – Ronald Reagan

Fact: Something that has been proven to be true. The truth, as opposed to your truth.

Data: Facts and statistics collected together. These are the raw materials of information.

Belief: An acceptance that a statement is thought to be true or that something exists.

Perspective: An individual’s point of view with the strong potential to have bias of fact, personal sentiment (both good and bad), unjustifiable understanding or criticism.

Opinion: A view or judgment formed about something, often not based on facts, knowledge, or truth. (“The greatest deception man suffer is from their own opinion.” – Leonardo da Vinci )

Information: Stimuli that may have meaning in some context for its receiver. Must be confirmed with facts to have merit or value.

Knowledge: The theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Ability to be received from many sources and responsibly must be confirmed by fact or relied upon empirical knowledge.

Wisdom: The second highest order of the human condition. It is the ability to process, utilize, and act through experience, acquired understanding, higher developed common good, foresight/outcome, intuition and judgment. The act of doing good on the merits of good.

The opposite of truth is not a lie. The opposite of truth is falsity. A lie is an intentionally false statement. Untruths are, of course, spread by lies. But the real blight of falsity is spread, often unintentionally through complacency, disregard, misclassification, and misunderstanding of the meanings of the words defined above.

Below are three of the most common ways fallacy, mistakes, errors, and untruth are propagated through the population by unintentional conduits of falsehood.

Facts & Data: Facts and data are as close as one can get to truth. Facts and data are provable. Since facts are sacred they must be treated as such. Do not become a victim, then a source, of their misapplication. Be very wise in qualifying the source of the facts and data. Even wiser, ensure that the facts and data are not misapplied to trick and deceive the innocent and trusting of heart. ??

Belief: Most beliefs are simply that. Beliefs. They are opinions. They are perspectives. They are the amalgamation of the beliefs of those one listens to, watches, and follows. Beliefs spread and are accepted by the receivers as information or knowledge. That is, the receiver often accepts as true that which someone else has intentionally or unintentionally represented as information (a pattern of facts or data) or knowledge (a body of truth gained by experience, contemplation, and understanding). Beliefs are rarely a byproduct of facts and data, yet they are often spread as if they are one and the same.

Wisdom: True wisdom does not propagate. It lives within the person who nurtured it. He who accumulates wisdom is a collator of facts, data, perspectives, opinions, information, and knowledge. These are all contemplated, then synthesized using the tools of understanding, experience, intuition, common sense, and judgment. The ability to adopt or discard knowledge in this manner is the much sought-after state of wisdom.?