Public opinion

Smith pointed obliquely across the street and said:

• John, do you see the woman sitting under the tree on the other side of the street?
• The beggar?
• That woman has two university degrees and speaks Spanish fluently. Now she is in such misery that nobody dares go near her. Even those who want to give her money have to stand far away and throw it to her.
• Oh, why such a tragic state?
• Because she gives off a terrible smell. She suddenly became mute for reasons unknown, and then her body smell grew steadily stronger, her family drove her away, and she wanders begging, suffering like an animal. Even the local authorities that would like to help are reluctant and keep away.
• Does anyone know the cause?
• If you can bear the smell, go and talk to her. Give her paper and a pen and see what she tells you.
• Then let's buy her some cakes and a bottle of water and try to strike up a conversation.
  The two friends went up to greet her and saw sorrowful eyes and a gaunt face. Indeed, she gave off a very unpleasant smell. After a few words of conversation she began to write on paper. Her handwriting was still very beautiful.
  "In the past I was very good at literature. I graduated from university in literature and also from university in Spanish. At first I wrote for newspapers as a contributor and lived reasonably well. Readers liked my articles. My pen name changed with each topic.
  Until one day someone came to me and proposed that I work for them full-time, in secret, not publicly, at a very high salary. They would give me ideas to write about, and I was not to ask why or ask where the stories came from. All that mattered was that the writing was good. I thought the salary was so high that I agreed. They made me sign a contract very carefully, with harsh binding conditions: if the secret got out, my whole family would be punished. Once I was in, I could no longer withdraw. I was both greedy and afraid, so I had no choice but to work for them.
  What I had to write was praise of some person, or criticism and attacks on someone. I had to write so that it was moving and appealing, so that everyone who read it would believe it was real. They would outline the idea roughly, and then I would invent and embellish it myself to make it dramatic. They would review it and suggest adjustments. Once it was perfect they took the article away to publish somewhere I do not know.
  All I know is that I wrote a great many articles praising or attacking figures in many fields: government, religion, science, artists... They would add the names afterward as they wished. I was only the person who created a story resembling the real life of some figure. I wrote the story very well. What names it carried, I did not know.
  After five years, I happened to go on the Internet and read my own articles, with specific names inserted. I understood that they had used me to write articles praising wicked people and attacking, smearing and slandering honest people. Society was thrown into disorder because the truth was turned upside down. Good people were considered bad by everyone, and bad people were considered good by everyone. I trembled with fear. My articles were so persuasive and appealed to so many people that they helped the bad gain the upper hand in life.
  Now I am rich, I have built a multi-storey house, I have a car and money in the bank, but I have committed a great many wrongs. But if I withdrew, they would harm my family at once. Just as I was confused and did not know what to do, I suffered a stroke that struck my mouth and I could no longer speak. I used the illness as an excuse to ask for leave and stayed at home for treatment.
  Before the tongue-tied illness was cured, my body began to smell like a dead rat. The doctor said it was a rare disease in which the chemical composition of sweat changes and gives off an unusual smell. Nobody has researched a cure for this disease because there are too few patients. People gradually kept away from me, and my life sank into a dead end of loneliness. I don't dare go near anyone either, for fear that they will smell me and despise me. This is the first time someone has had the courage to sit near me for so long. I have no tears left to cry, because I have cried too much already. Thank you for the box of cakes and the bottle of water, both of you...." 🧦

This world is steered by three things: force, money and ideas.
Force and money are easy to understand, but ideas are subtler and harder to grasp. To arrange the thinking of the masses is to lead society. If the masses are guided by good views, society will be good. If the masses are guided by evil ideas, society will fall apart.
Genuine leaders will try to put forward genuine views to the masses in order to create a progressive society. Evil forces, by contrast, will try to put forward a distorted, false idea to pull the masses in another direction and cause social instability.

But what matters here is whether each one of us can keep our own mind amid countless kinds of information, and whether we can judge and tell apart the mixed opinions that pass through our ears. If we mistake information, if we are deceived by false public opinion and our mind is led in a wrong direction, then we will act and behave wrongly, and every wrong is a wrongdoing.

In today's tangle of opinion and information, we must be alert enough and ethical enough to keep our minds safe from being poisoned. The wicked say white is black and black is white, to create a disordered society that benefits them. Let us not become one of their naive victims and then help spread what is evil and false in life.

We must calmly wait for information to be verified by the official competent authorities before we accept it. Any "hot" piece of information is likely to be a scam. A video clip attached is still not trustworthy. A photo of the person alongside is all the more suspicious.
Every piece of public opinion that enters our mind must be filtered extremely carefully so that it does not destroy our ethics. And whoever sows deceit in the world bears very many wrongs, and the law of cause and effect is very strict and lets nothing pass.