Did you ever read a 300-page book and then realize, after finishing it, that it taught you nothing new? Did you ever watch a two-hour movie that said nothing in the end?

Did you ever read a long newspaper article that did not provide any new information? Did you ever sit through a long interview on the radio or on television which in the end was not what you thought it would be?

All of these things are information bombs that waste your time. Some of this material is deliberately created and placed to divert you in your quest for knowledge. This is another aspect of info war.  

In the Information Age, we are literally bombarded with information. All this leads to information overload, the feeling that there is so much information that it is impossible to assimilate it all.

Information, information, information, everywhere information, and no escape.

The powers that be seek to disinform people and turn them into sheeple so they can stay in power. In their realpolitik, they consciously promote anti-intellectualism and have convinced large segments of the population that reading and studying have no value. 

For those who have not fallen into that trap, the strategists of negative globalization have created info minefields.

An effective info mine gives you the impression that you will gain some new and useful information from it and convinces you to allocate time to it. Often, you only notice the trick after you have wasted the maximum amount of time.  

This gives a whole new spin to the expression data mining.

These info packets, or more accurately disinfo packets, are everywhere. The disinfo disseminators do not even have to work hard to create disinfo packets, since there are already so many people producing meaningless literature, art, films, music, and other such virtual info packets.       

The disinfo system gives a voice to this material. It’s like freedom of expression for people who don’t really have anything to say.

The Internet is full of vast info minefields. About 99 percent of the postings on the worldwide web are nothing but fluff, although one percent of the web sites contain useful intellectual content. To skillfully use the Internet, one must sort the wheat from the chaff and avoid the endless info minefields. 

Is it the Information Superhighway or the Disinformation Superhighway?

Info minefields were first developed through television, which is rightly called the idiot box and the boob tube. About 99.9 percent of all TV programs are totally worthless inanity.   
 
The mind of a child raised on television and the Internet is effectively destroyed by the time he or she reaches adulthood. It is almost impossible to deprogram the brainwashed young adult since the person has been drained of creativity, has never learned critical thinking, and is unable to understand logic systems.  

Fun, fun, fun on the Infobahn, while your mind is turned to mush. 

Marshall McLuhan once said: “The medium is the message and the user is the content.”

Yet, in this Disinformation Age of vacuous users, what kind of message can we expect? One wonders what the insightful McLuhan would have said about the media environment of the 21st century.

In this info war, Muslim info jihadis and other anti-globalization info warriors must never plant info mines. They would only hurt the people we are trying to help in the end, just like land mines. Disseminating true information and educating people to avoid the info minefields would be a better strategy.

All intellectuals are thirsty for knowledge, but they should be wary of those who would take advantage of this admirable trait to undermine them and neutralize their efforts.    

In a famous hadith, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his household) said: “Seek knowledge, even if it is in China.”

However, one must be realistic. You can’t read every important book that was ever written. You can’t learn everything. 

Endless amounts of true information that cannot be assimilated in a lifetime can also be info minefields. Seekers of knowledge beware.

It is good to be educated, but endless studying in info minefields without ever using what one has learned for the benefit of society is a waste of time.

Knowledge and information are meant to be used, so we should try to strike a balance between studying and creatively applying what we have learned for the greater good.

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