The World According to... Six

In an age of such great access to intellect, one may come to believe that reason and wisdom would follow short in tow - that these two characteristics would surely accompany freely this age of automated know-how. It would only make sense to fully compare this age to the great enlightenment or another renaissance, perhaps as late as through the 1700's and well into the 1800's, during a much romanticized Bohemian period in Western history, and perhaps even further back to Descartes, during a time when doubt and reason walked hand in hand.
In this age of freely passing information, stand rhetoric and inflammatory conjecture as a high art; a void of mostly emotional argumentation with rarely a shred of fact, history or empathy. Media driven "town-criers", who are no more than self prophetic doomsayers, display themselves, often as opposing authorities. Their power is as strong as the people's lack of will to contest it. Their facts are as valid as their admirer's ability to cast away bias.
It has been said however, that history is written by the victors and that truth is theirs to be had - regardless of validity. In a republic-democracy, in which the power is to belong to the people, that same sad truth remains. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "History is a set of lies agreed upon." Generally, in a government of the majority, truth is a matter of greater percentages. The greater the majority, the greater the slice of truth. The minority, in this case, struggles over the scraps of that percentage, and should their hearts beat loudly enough, continue to drum their axiom until a very fickle people hear that cry.
As a general rule, those who gain power and wishing to remain, go to the youth, as they are seen as the most naive and willing to succumb to those who present them with gifts of truths that they deem valid. Where as the older generation, only a bit wiser are portrayed as curmudgeons who though desiring the same care and gifts are not as maliable - or forgiving. Nor are they as subject to populace opinion, which in a leader's view may be subject to sedition should they be standing is direct opposition of that particular truth.
One need only look to history to catch glimpses as to the power of controlling the truth.

He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.
All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.
Adolf Hitler

In an age and land of free and quickly accessable information, one must guard and live The Truth. Descartes would have us question every aspect of our surroundings and those in authority, and those protecting that authority by delivering those truths.
Believe not without question, because even one's own heart is a vile snake, bent solely on preservation.