Chapter 17: The Issue of Quality, Integrity, and Truthfulness of Readily Accessible Information

Under Capitalist paradigms, the primary reinforcers are for amassing money or wealth in all its forms and attaining power over others. Incentives are strong. One result is ubiquitous advertising and deliberately misleading disinformation intended to induce people to buy products and services. The truthfulness or usefulness of the information has little or nothing to do with such messaging, except to the extent that the law requires.

A person living in a Capitalist environment is constantly awash in a virtual sea of intrusive information presenting itself as factual or even as scientific proof that this or that product is beneficial, necessary, superior, or unique. The vast preponderance of this information is demonstrably false or at best, unsubstantiated. A person would have to be a specialist and expert, or else perform an impossible amount of exhaustive research in order to determine the accuracy of such claims. The advent of the Internet and mass communications has exacerbated and magnified this phenomenon.

"Nine out of ten doctors recommend our product," "Our supplements are 90% more bio-available than any others on the market thanks to the patented process found only in our products," "Faster streaming video than our competitors, using our exclusive XYZ technology," "Our cars are safer than the other brands," and so forth are what one finds when one searches for medicines, supplements, devices, services, etc.

If one were to believe these claims, then there are hundreds of competing products that are all the "best on the market, superior to all others.” No manufacturer or service provider will ever advertise that "Our products are made of inferior materials and produced in slip-shod sweat-shops by half-starved underpaid workers using a defective design that allows us to maximize our profits and stock prices primarily through superior advertising." Nor will any company ever advertise that "Our products and services are pretty typical of what's on the market. We just charge more."

The reinforcers dominating Capitalist paradigms and systems are to sell the most. Dissemination of accurate information is not reinforced, except where laws are in place, usually due to sustained and concerted pressure from the Community, that force compliance.

As we are seeing in the world at the time of this writing, and quite blatantly in the United States, lawmakers are under constant pressure from mega-corporations and the people at the very top of the economic Pyramid who control them, to undo such laws. This is inevitable, since such laws run counter to the central, most potent reinforcers in Capitalist paradigms.

From time to time movements surge among the People that are able to bring enough pressure to bear upon politicians to make them to pass such laws. Yet under Capitalist systems the voices of the Feudal Lords of the Pyramid will always overpower the voices of the People, just as casino patrons may sometimes win big sums, yet in the long run the "house" comes out ahead and the patrons come out behind.

To make matters worse, as the economic stratification of a society deepens and consolidates, a bigger and bigger percentage of the members of the Community become unrelentingly worn down by the losing struggle for economic survival, their dwindling reserves of time and energy increasingly dissipated by stress and distractions. Individuals do not have the wherewithal to do thorough research.

To compete the picture, given the power of the media to control the information that people see, hear and read, in context of the escalating sophistication of propaganda and advertising, we see that Capitalism is a fundamentally flawed paradigm that reinforces against the dissemination of truthful information. Without access to reliable, accurate information, the people are unable to make well-informed choices and selections.

Capitalism strongly reinforces against the unrestricted availability and flow of truthful and accurate information. The information to which we are exposed has tremendous impact on our perceptions and decisions. For those at the top of hierarchical power structures, controlling and carefully tailoring the information disseminated to the public is a powerful tool for manipulation of large populations.

Under any Capitalist system, truthful and accurate information is lost and buried amidst the ongoing onslaught and overload of propaganda otherwise known as advertising. Make no mistake about it: advertising is a particularly pernicious form of propaganda. Even when the truth is told, it is presented in a partial and misleading way; outright lies and unsubstantiated claims are the norm.

Consider the case of Purdue pharmaceutical company who knowingly advertised oxycontin as a safe, non-addictive, painkiller, even though they knew from studies that they suppressed, that the opposite was true. This is only one example from one company in one industry.

Seeking factual information is doubly thwarted by this overwhelming overabundance of misinformation, and by the laws and norms in Capitalist paradigms which often render honest facts inaccessible as "intellectual property" of the manufacturers.

One might turn to scientific publications, and indeed the fare is better in that setting; but under Capitalist paradigms, the overwhelming dominant reinforcers for making money intrude and distort the scientific community as well. Furthermore, such publications are usually only comprehensible to members of the target scientific community. Lay people struggle to understand such articles.

Like all inhabitants of Capitalist systems, scientists are in the position of needing money to survive, both personally and professionally. A scientist who lacks funding for their research and is not personally wealthy is an out-of-work scientist. This effectively suppresses whatever research they would otherwise do.

In Capitalist paradigms, the only form of scientific research that is consistently well funded is that which is seen by wealthy people and companies as likely to lead to serious profits. Government may also fund some pure research aimed at expanding human knowledge and quality of life; but funding for such programs is constantly under assault from the private sector, whose Feudal Lords are reluctant to have any of their wealth taxed to support projects that will not profit them. Nor are they eager to support research where results will be freely available to the public and therefore not subject to exclusive and restricted ownership as “intellectual property.” The reinforcers are too strong. Over time, under Capitalist paradigms and systems, the support for non-profit-driven research steadily dwindles.

Scientists working for a corporation or Feudal Lord are under the strict control of their employer, who pays them to work on and find what they want them to find. Any scientist who finds that a company's major money-making products are unsafe for human beings or the environment upon which all living things depend to survive, will either find their research suppressed or be fired and discredited and most likely blacklisted through carefully crafted propaganda. If they publicize their findings to the Community, then they will be sued or even imprisoned for violation of nondisclosure agreements that they were required to sign as condition of employment and for infringement of "intellectual property," even though they were the ones doing the research, since all rights to any work they do are owned and controlled by the company.

Accurate and useful information is available; but it is buried and thoroughly overwhelmed by the Niagara Falls of advertising, misinformation, and disinformation in which we are immersed, like the trickle of a tiny mountain stream mingled in the waters of the Amazon.

At this point in history, the United States government is actively suppressing scientific data, research, and even discussion of vital findings on climate change which have implications that would compromise the power and profits of some of the largest corporations on the planet if this data and these studies were actively and openly released into the public dialogue. This suppression is directly at the behest of the Feudal Lords controlling these Corporations. Its withholding is an omission that potentially threatens the long-term survival of our species and even of life on earth altogether.

A prime example is the universal dependence on fossil fuels, which has been scientifically demonstrated since the 1970’s to be causing global warming, threatening the future of life on earth in very immediate terms. This information makes us responsible to minimize and strive to eliminate our use of fossil fuels and other technologies that accelerate this process. Doing so would obviously destroy much of the profits and control of some of the most powerful corporations and Feudal Lords on the planet. The worldwide petroleum industry knew fifty years ago that the use of fossil fuels would come to jeopardize life on earth. Predictably, they chose to aggressively and systematically suppress what they knew. The reinforcers for profit-making are so powerful as to create classical addictive behaviors; these companies and their Lords prefer to risk extinction of life on earth, rather than let go of their unimaginable wealth and power. A hallmark of addiction is that it supercedes even the very survival instinct of the addict.

We must keep in mind that, in many cases, advertising and propaganda are presented as scientific fact, often with scientists’ names attached to lend credibility. This is not surprising when we realize that scientists are no different than other human beings in that they respond to the behavioral reinforcements of their environment.

Under the Nazi regime in Germany, otherwise credible scientists found "scientific proof" that Aryans were superior to other ethnic/racial groups and that Jews were inferior, justifying their extermination. During the era of slavery in the United States, some well-credentialed scientists published studies supporting the claim that dark-skinned Africans were subhuman and therefore suitable as beasts of burden. In the current era, there are scientists who will "find" whatever the highest bidder wishes them to "find." This is not an attack upon the integrity of scientists as a group; it is only a statement of the responses and behaviors that prevail under Capitalist paradigms among all sectors.

The task of separating the signal of accurate and verifiable facts from the overwhelming mass of noise in the form of advertising, propaganda, interest-serving opinions stated as facts, and articles published by people lacking any scientific background who express their beliefs and opinions as fact, is so daunting as to be largely impractical. With a great deal of effort, one might be able to determine which of several products is indeed superior; but it is impossible in practice to sort truth from propaganda in more than single items or questions at a time; and even then there is an unacceptably wide margin of uncertainty.

Once Capitalism is decommissioned and replaced with the new Paradigms based on mutuality and reinforcing co-operation, efficiency, and the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of individuals and of the Community, the mass of advertising and propaganda will dwindle from a Niagara Falls to a dripping faucet, from a supernova to a candle flame.

There will be no reinforcement for advertising and propagandizing behavior. Currency will be obsolete and irrelevant. There will be nothing to gain, no reinforcement for flooding the surroundings with propaganda designed to drive sales or market share. The very concepts of “sales,” “market share,” and “stock” will have no meaning, function, or existence. In fact, there will be strong reinforcers against spreading disinformation or misinformation, since doing so will result in the originator’s losing the trust of the their audience.

Of course human beings will always lie to one degree or another on an individual basis, though the reinforcers for lying will be greatly reduced. However, the blaring cacaphony of disinformation will go extinct for lack of motivation.

Among scientists there will always be disagreements, competing theories and hypotheses. The human ego will always play a part in human interactions. But the size, degree, and quantity of misleading information will be reduced from epidemic and dominant to individual and sideline in scope.

Information will be freely and openly shared among all interested parties to the benefit of everyone. There will be no nondisclosure agreements or corporate “intellectual property” preventing such sharing. The Internet will become a venue for Community-wide, nation-wide, worldwide databases and forums for dialog, debate, discussion and information sharing as well as socialization. Competing theories, technologies, and methodologies will prevail, wither, thrive, and evolve based on their actual practical merits rather than on presentation, packaging, data-tweaking and the politics of wealth and influence.

Access to the latest factual information will be direct and immediate. There will be no need to try to decide between the safest car, the most reliable car, the car with the best mileage, or the most affordable car. All cars will be manufactured with the best designs and features that the state of the art allows and will be designed to be easily upgradeable and serviceable. There will be no proprietary tools or exclusive technologies held ransom for a high price reserved only for the wealthy.

The choices for someone desiring a vehicle will be simple and straightforward: does one need or prefer a passenger car, a utility vehicle or a truck; a long-haul vehicle or a commuter vehicle, what size and with which features, what color, etc. Every car made will combine the best that the technology can produce.

A person in need of medical care will be presented with choices among the safest and most effective medicines and treatments possible. No studies will be suppressed or co-opted, no data will be hidden; no advertising will cause confusion. Only medical considerations will drive diagnostic and therapeutic decisions.

Law enforcement and employee intervention may need to be called upon to prevent the heads of current pharmaceutical companies from destroying their research out of spite once they learn that their days of privilege and control are over and that all medicines will be freely given to all who need them. Any such attempts will be met with arrest and criminal charges with subsequent prison time if found guilty.

In the absence of the reinforcers of Capitalist paradigms, the truthful sharing and presentation of data among cooperating and competing researchers, engineers, designers, etc. will be reinforced. These new norms will result in the best currently attainable quality of life for each and all.