This is about the mis-use of research and sources, but it raises many questions of import to all engaged in research. Read this and then think about the following or whatever else it brings to mind.
1. How unethical is trimming away at a quote to change the meaning? It seems to me that there has been an increase in this type of behavior recently, am I wrong?
2. Why is it that many people with whom I talk think nothing about fictionalizing history? How insidious are "historical novels"?
3. What about Kennedy? Is he a dupe? Does he care? Have we just moved to a result oriented world so that "reality" is what is convenient?
One is reminded if this: "The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." From here.
