To Err Is Human ...

So said Alexander Pope (1688-1744) in his book-length poem An Essay on Criticism in  1711. (Link to entire LONG poem.)

Here's the couplet in which that phrase appears:

Good nature and good sense must ever join;

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Anyway, I've been thinking about this "erring" thing a lot as I've been ... aging. It seems I've been blundering more and more in recent years. (Maybe I always was but just pretended I wasn't?)

An easy example: When I post these blogs, I go upstairs, and Joyce reads them online. She invariably finds a typo (or two or three), which I immediately fix on my iPhone.

You might well ask a couple of things: Why don't you have her read it before you post it? And How well do you handle hearing about those typos?

First, I don't want to make typos. I assume there are not any (or, at least, I'm hoping there aren't). So it's kind of a pride thing, I guess (okay, a male pride thing?). I want to show Joyce something flawless--stupid, I know. For who's flawless?

Second, I don't handle typos well. I say bad words--playfully enough so that Joyce doesn't feel bad (and will keep helping me) but sincerely enough that I acquire thereby a little "venting relief." Takes some ... delicacy ... to curse when your lover is trying to help you!

In other parts of my life, I find I'm blundering more and more. Dropping things. Breaking things. Spilling things. Making messes. For example, I take a little bottle of Coke Zero to bed with me, sip a bit as I read and, later, stream. Never had an accident. 

Until last week when I knocked the full bottle over (we have  a light beige carpet in our bedroom), and I was down on my brittle knees scrubbing the floor when Joyce came in to see what I was doing. (I'd hoped to have it eradicated before she arrived, of course.)

But I guess what prompted all this is what I see on Facebook every day--"information" that's whirling around in memes and in links. Misinformation, I should say.

It alarms me that so many people don't check the authenticity/veracity of the things they're sharing with countless others. In some rare cases I've messaged some people I know to let them know--to share a link that examines the truth of what they've shared. I don't ever do it publicly--as a Reply, for example. Privately.

But I don't think it makes much difference. The old "confirmation bias" has taken over: If the meme/information confirms what you already think/believe, then who cares if it's true or not.

And, I confess,  when I see a meme/picture/link that declares something in line with my thoughts, it is tempting to share it. But I always check first. Snopes is good. PolitiFact. (Link to Snopes; link to PolitiFact.)

Here's a recent one. There were memes going around the other day claiming that you could tell if a product was made in China simply by checking the first numbers of the barcode.

Only partially--and misleadingly--true. Here's what PolitiFact says: Link. Here's what Snopes says: Link.

What's additionally alarming about this spread of misinformation is that we know that the Russians (in particular) are spreading divisive information on our social media--it seems to be far more effective in polarizing us than, oh, old-fashioned propaganda. In the latest Lee Child novel about Jack Reacher (Blue Moon, 2019) Reacher ends up swiftly killing a Russian agent who  is doing this on his computer in an unnamed American city.

I'm not naive enough to think that anything is going to change with this post of mine. I mean, we could continue debating sensibly IF we agreed on what the facts are. But, apparently, we can't. If a fact contradicts what we believe, we call it "fake." QED.

But if we don't clean up our act, if we don't try harder to verify things before we share them, we'll continue to err--and have to trust for divine forgiveness as we watch our democracy crumble beneath our typing and clicking fingers.