77.8 F
Cruz Bay
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesCipher for Yourself

Cipher for Yourself

May 15, 2006 – Politically, Generation Now Inc. is the best thing going in the Virgin Islands, but it needs to do more to capture the attention of a distracted public. If it intends to make the message heard through the din of loose talk, melee and innuendo that has come to characterize each election season in the Virgin Islands, then the group has to adopt some of the same tactics used by others.
I call it election season because while 'wabbits' may not exactly be the hunted parties – in their best Elmer Fuddisian-fashion, the comic-influenced political pundits will be out hunting for the reputations of those that they don't support and votes for those that they do.
For those voters on the prowl for issue-orientated debate amongst candidates or on the airwaves, finding such substantive dialogue may be as illusive as bagging Bugs Bunny or the Roadrunner.
By way of introduction, Generation Now is a non-politically affiliated group of voters between the ages of 25 and 44 whose mission statement avows that its goal is "to promote more proactive and politically astute Virgin Islanders, by empowering people through education and information, and consolidating the strength of viewpoints among the voting public." (See Generation Now! Position Statement.)
In its Thursday press conference, the group breathed a breath of free air into the political atmosphere by demanding an issue-oriented campaign from those seeking political office. The group listed 10 priorities upon which they will judge all candidates in the gubernatorial and senatorial elections.
For reasons unbeknownst to me, the group neglected to mention the Congressional delegate position. However, that doesn't distract from the magnitude of their undertaking to provide information to the voting public AND the public at large in order to increase their knowledge of the political process.
Bear in mind, those are two distinct groups, but that is fodder for a separate column. Today, we'll deal with the differences between information and knowledge.
Gertrude Stein once remarked that everybody gets so much information all day long, that they lose their common sense. Although phrased far more harshly than I would have put it, to a large extent, the statement is particularly true in a community where most talk radio programs offer a proliferation of opinions/information, but a dearth of facts. Topp Talk, by all means a superior program, is the most notable exception to this rule.
How absurd is it that the general public can recite every rumor concerning public officials with absolute clarity of recollection, yet take absolutely no interest in watching, listening or reading what actually occurred in a public meeting that has been televised, broadcast on the radio and reported in daily publications? I am truly baffled as to why someone would listen to a talk radio host offer his or her interpretation of what is happening at that very moment, rather tune the radio to the live broadcast and get the information first-hand.
It is this phenomenon that Generation Now – and other groups of goodwill – finds themselves up against. In her book Mansfield Park, Jane Austen, who died in 1817, made the observation that where any body of educated men of whatever denomination are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information or of something else.
We don't have a deficiency of information. We are in fact drowning in information, while at the same time we are starving for knowledge. The main problem that is faced by organizations such as GN in its attempts to educate is that most persons are incapable of differentiating between the two.
The abundance of static information regarding what happens or doesn't happen in the territory drowns out the real knowledge of what is actually happening. Just as an audience with its eyes on the magician's hand waving the handkerchief misses the hand slipping the coin in the pocket, so does the majority of the populace, enthralled by a juicy rumor, miss what's really important about a politician's record – or lack thereof. This, I believe, is the "something else" of which Austen referred.
Information can be true, false or tainted. Information is simply something that you've seen, read or heard. People tend to forget that just because you've heard someone say it, doesn't mean that it's true.
Any attorney, defense or prosecutor, will tell you that even what a witness has seen is still open to interpretation. It's worth or quality can often be based upon its source and a thousand other variables. What,then, makes the difference?
Knowledge makes the difference. Knowledge is based upon facts. Knowledge brings great comprehension. If one chooses to familiarize oneself with a topic, then one can not be fooled by the magician's waving hand or by any other form of political or personal prestidigitation.
If one chooses to have knowledge of the legislative record, then one can not be fooled by paid lackeys calling a radio station day after day to tout a politician's imagined accomplishments. Neither would one be fooled by lackeys who seek to downplay real accomplishments by flooding the airwaves with meaningless noise.
T.S. Eliot's "The Rock" posed the questions "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?" and "Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
The answers to both are simple and they are the same. We have lost them in the lack of willingness of the individual to cipher what is of substance from that which is style.
The elders of these islands always cautioned youngsters "cipher for yourself, then you will never be fooled." Somewhere along the line of the glut of information, we have lost the inclination to cipher for ourselves. That is why the task undertaken by Generation Now is so important. Their mission of promoting more proactive and politically astute Virgin Islanders harks back to the admonition for us all to "cipher for ourselves".
Generation Now has undertaken the task of sifting through the overabundance of information and making available the knowledge the Virgin Islands' public needs in order to make intelligent decisions for Election 2006.
However, the group must get into the communities, rather than expect the communities to come to it. The majority of the voting public has never set food on the campus of the University of the Virgin Islands and never will. If this knowledge is to be effectively transferred from Generation Now to its target audience, then it has to abandon the ivory tower approach and get back to the time-proven grassroots approach of town meetings in neighborhoods, door to door contact, and flood the airwaves with their message.
In short, they must fight fire with fire.
If the public is prepared to benefit from the knowledge it is presented with and to cipher for itself and make intelligent decisions based on facts, then the Virgin Islands will benefit in the end. If the public is not prepared, then the Virgin Islands will continue to drift aimlessly in an ocean of useless information governed by even more useless politicians, policies and promises.
And in my opinion, th-th-th-that'll be all, folks.

Editors note:We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
Editors note: Emmett Hansen II was a member of the 24th and 25th V.I. Legislatures and holds degrees from Dillard University and the Defense Information School, and has taken graduate courses in public administration at the University of the Virgin Islands. He is presently at work on a book about his experiences while in the Legislature.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.