I love a good documentary. Sometimes it’s a historical documentary. Sometimes something about science. Sometimes a real life murder mystery. But I’m not naive enough to believe a documentary doesn’t have bias. They all do. The moment a writer, producer, editor, etc., decides to include something or not include something, there’s a bias. That’s how life works, so don’t get me started, I don’t feel like explaining the obvious.
I don’t just like documentaries because they are (or at least can sometimes be) entertaining. I like them because they’re a mental gym. I don’t just use them for entertainment or to learn something, but also because they can, if viewed critically, improve one’s ability to observe objectively, to critique, to reason.
For example, while watching the totally captivating documentary this post is titled after (catch it on Max), I would ask myself the following kinds of questions:
- What parts of the interviews being edited out?
- How are they editing the interviews with other materials?
- Why aren’t they interviewing certain key players?
- Why aren’t they doing any fact checking of key players that aren’t involved in the documentary?
- How is the music being used to influence the narrative?
- What conversations took place before the interview? Between people in the documentary? Between them and those making the film?
- Do my perceptions of reality and the truth, in regard to the documentary and its claims, line up with what I literally see (i.e. person X says, “Y”, person A drank a sip of water, etc.)?
- Am I having an emotional reaction to something I’ve been shown and if so, why? (Trick question: the answer will always be it has something to do with me, my past, my culture, and my biology, not the documentary itself)
- If I come to a certain conclusion, can I show supportive evidence over the three seasons?
- How does that evidence stand up?
- More importantly, if I come to a certain conclusion, can I disprove it with additional (if not previously acquired) observations? (This skill is, in my humble opinion, one of the most important skills a rational, objective seeking being can embrace in their day to day lives).
That’s just a smattering of the different types of questions I might be asking at any moment—and trust me, I’m usually asking at least three or four at any given time. It’s fun. It makes the universe more three dimensional which I believe also gives life more meat, not to mention helps us interact with a world more for what it is than what we’ve conned ourselves into believing it is (or should be).
Stream of consciousness.
Good night.
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