I've become acutely aware of the limations of my mind over the years. Often my opinions are formed on the basis of as little as one sample. I think that's how the mind works; we experience, we generalise; we hear a story, we generalise; it's not possible to research everything exhaustively, we have to extrapolate.
This can result in us thinking that we know a lot more than we, in fact, know. A few times now my girlfriend has reliably informed me on points of Swedish law (she's a native Swede and I'm not) and later been contradicted by experience, literature or the relevant government authority. I frequently relate something I've read or heard via the media and am met with disbelief. Perhaps we require a greater degree of certainty than is usually possible in order to function, I don't know.
The upshot is, what information we do get becomes very important; we extrapolate it into a whole world. Friends, the media, governments, friends, books, school...
Russia wants Sweden to curtail media reports on Chechnya
(here), Californian college professors may have to start being very carefull what they say (here), we swim in a sea of advertising with but one aim, to sell, etc., etc.
So, what do you know?
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