Objectivity

It seems to me,in today's age of information overdrive,we as a society,as individuals are losing out one an important thing:the objective viewpoint.Even those who understand it's need are finding themselves fighting hard to find the needle in the haystack.

Years ago I had read an article in a local magazine on MiG-25 and their role it played in the armed forces.It was well written,with hair raising facts.As a kid,teenager,there is always some degree of romanticism involved with planes(esp fighter planes)and the article stayed with me for a long time.I even have a cutout if the same to this day.

Fast forward to present.
I happened to stumble upon an article in wiki on MiG-25.This had pretty much the same facts on the plane as far as the technical details go.The similarities end there.I found remarkable differences when it came to it's combat/mission info.

The magazine cutout clearly vouched for MiG-25's supremacy.Understandable,given the national pride.
Wiki on the other hand had totally different,if not opposite views on it's operational supremacy.

Now,I don't want to get into a debate on who has/had the best planes around during the cold war era or now.I just want to make a point here.

Wiki is a opensource community project where people contribute and create content.Since many users are monitoring the process,the assumption is that information is authentic or close enough.But it turns out that this isn't entirely true.This is totally understandable.People who contribute to wiki are just that:-people.People are known for being a lot of things.Being objective is not one of them.And they cannot be blamed for that.While some people swear that they are objective without knowing that that's not the case,the others are very objective in being subjective.Since there are people who monitor and correct the discrepancies,wiki is pretty close to being a reliable source of information on practically everything under the sun.Objective or not it does pretty damn good as a mammoth source of information.Hey,above all it's FREE(free as in beer) and far superior compared to the ones which charge money and feed shit to it's customers(cough cough MSoft)

To say,being objective in today's info-flooded world is difficult is indeed an understatement.
Read,read and re-read,become knowledgeable,have strong views and be objective enough(enlightened enough,should i say) to comprehend the fact that sometimes even the great 'you' in you can be wrong.
Soak up as much as you can,of course with a pinch of salt.

But then again,it's just a dePressing thought of mine.
--desparado(and this is not a typo.it's intentional.)