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The Un-Comfort Zone II by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. Losing Trust is a Good Thing - Here’s Why When did you quit believing everything you heard? A recent spate of fake news has gotten everyone in a tizzy. But, this isn’t news - phony stories have been around forever. It’s just the Internet is delivering them faster, in greater quantities, and to more people than ever before. Fake news is a virus of the information age. We inoculate ourselves with skep- ticism. The net result is people have lost their trust in authority. And, I believe this is a good thing. The opportunity to deceive people online began almost immediately. On July 5, 1993, The New Yorker magazine published Peter Steiner’s cartoon of a dog sitting in front of a computer with the now famous caption: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The anonymity of the web has enabled many scams. Most of us have received an e-mail from a Nigerian prince who wants to transfer millions of dollars into our bank accounts; or from a celebrity who we could only dream of meeting. Some have been catfished. This is when someone lies to you about who they are on social media or dating sites; then work to build your trust so they can take advantage of it. Lately, I’ve been wondering when I first started to become skeptical. A friend suggested it was when I learned Santa Claus wasn’t real. I remember the neigh- borhood kids telling me Santa was actu- ally my parents. I didn’t believe them. I ran home, distraught and confused, and demanded the truth from my mother and father. When they confirmed it; I was shocked they would lie to me. I felt so deceived. Then my parents explained it was like a game, and ordered me to go along with the pretense so my sister wouldn’t find out until she was older. Being included in the secret made me feel somewhat better. We stop believing and trusting after we’ve been fooled, hoaxed, or defrauded one time too many. I was curious when other people first became skeptical and quit blindly accepting their sources of information, so I ran an informal survey on social media to get some specifics. People told me they became cynical because of government l ies, false advertising, and fake news. Sadly, the most heartbreaking were those who told me they stopped trusting when friends and family members lied to them, abused them, or otherwise betrayed them. Government l ies which disi l lu- sioned people included: the Warren Commission’s implausible report on the John F. Kennedy assassination; Richard Nixon denying knowledge of the Watergate break-in; George W. Bush stating, “We found the weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]” when there were none; and Barack Obama saying, “If you like the [health care] plan you have, you can keep it” when it wasn’t true. 23 MAY 2017 Wilson cont’d on page 34. B&/:>381 <2/ .:366381 38.=;<:A ;38-/ C */;< :+8509:< 663893; (& 9-+<398 7+36 <//4+A 73.?/;< 8/< +@ ( & '966 :// % %(" ' #) & % " % ' $ '##' & % & & C % "/? (8=;/. ,3<; 7/. <99<2 ;<366 38 ,9@ & ' ;<366 38 ,9@ 2:3;</8;/8 $ 66 90 <2/ +,9>/ +:/ ( & 7+8=0+-<=:/. !3.;/+;98 +:1+38; WorldWide Drilling Resource ®