I posted this fake C.S. Lewis quote around the time Trump was elected in 2016. Soon after, I realized it was a parody of Lewis’s work (and tried to backwards-rationalize why I posted it). Four years later (September 2020), it’s making the rounds again. 204 shares later, I was the first person to question, “are you sure this is C.S. Lewis?”
With the snap of our fingers (and without a second thought), sentiments, statements, and beliefs are broadcast to all our contacts. A few questions come to mind:
Is there a cost to this carelessness?
Who’s responsibility is it to reduce this cost?
How can we take personal responsibility?
I find there are two dimensions of conflict at play. First, there is free speech versus regulation. Second, there is crowd knowledge versus expert knowledge. If everyone took personal responsibility and there was an ability to educate at scale, we would be able to (1) self-regulate our free speech and (2) crowd knowledge would demonstrate expertise. However, the path of least resistance is to simply believe (1) my reasoning is sufficient regulation as is and (2) expertise exists exclusively in my current belief system.
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.”