Q of the Week: Freedom of thought?

[Sandinista]

as long as you are prepared to look at differing viewpoints and understand were they are coming from and respect the differences then enjoy the differing points of view of the world

[lentulus]

Back to the original thought, people tend to want consensus rather than truth - the major problem with for example Wikipedia. I find my sixth formers are far more clone like in their interests and views that say 20 years ago, because of the unrelenting wall of information?

I went from atheist to Russian Orthodox when 40...

I think they have always wanted consensus.  Or, to quote Tolkien, they want "books that set things out that they already know, fair and square, with no contradictions" (the book's at home, but I think that's pretty close).

How old is sixth form?  I suppose I could ask Google, but hey...  Also, is this perhaps better in one respect -- when I was a teenager and I wanted to know something, I could either truck to the library and look it up -- like that was gonna happen  -- or ask an equally ill-informed friend.  Is consensus really worse than a variety of made-up facts?

[Leon]

How old is sixth form?  I suppose I could ask Google, but hey...  Also, is this perhaps better in one respect -- when I was a teenager and I wanted to know something, I could either truck to the library and look it up -- like that was gonna happen  -- or ask an equally ill-informed friend.  Is consensus really worse than a variety of made-up facts?

Sixth form is 16-18 year olds. 

I suppose the next questions is, when there is a wealth of information available if people are willing to look for it, does it bode well for the future that in general, people are too lazy to make that effort?