Gullible: True or False?

My husband came across a link for a quiz called "How gullible are you?" Being a quiz-taker from way back, he had to take the test and when it was scored, the answer came back, "Congratulations! You are a free thinker!" The page went on to describe how he must be highly intelligent and creative, how he had obviously thrown off the lies his parents told him as a child, to form his own thoughts and opinions. Pretty interesting stuff. So, I took the test, too.
Being a pretty smart cookie myself, I got the gist of the test right off the bat. One answers "true" or false" to every question. When the questions said things like, "The U.S. government would never allow farmers to feed chicken poop to their cattle" and "The government never lies to its citizens about anything," I knew their political leanings. To be scored a free thinker on their test, the test-taker simply had to suss out their political leanings and answer accordingly. I was named a free thinker, as well. Yay! And honestly, who wouldn't want to take a test and be informed at the end that he is highly intelligent, creative, an independent individual, capable of thinking for himself? All good, solid American ideals of a first-rate person. Sure, we all want to be independent thinkers, and most of us flatter ourselves that this is the case.
Just for giggles and grins, my husband then re-took the test, answering the questions in contrary fashion. The other end of the "free-thinking" scale is, incidentally, "mind slave." He scored on that end and the page that popped up said he must be a neo-Nazi, that he was obviously a fascist, stupid, and lacked even the remotest capacity for intelligent thought. Harsh, eh? I'll pause just a minute here to see if the piercing irony of this situation dawns on anyone. Anyone? Anyone?
Well, after the little description of the kind of thinker the test-taker is, follows the "correct" answers to the questions posed. At least half of the questions were stating opinions as facts to start with, so saying there was a "right" or "wrong" answer was a little disingenuous, to say the least.
Then, I started checking the links to the information claiming to support the "correct" answers. As a member of the media, I'm trained to be skeptical of answers that all come from the same place. Almost all of the quiz answers came from the same Web page or were in books published by the same company. Excuse me? Where is the diversity of sources? Tell me something about medicine and refer me to the "Journal of the American Medical Association" or "The Lancet" from the UK. Don't expect me to read an opinion from someone who is not a medical doctor and expect me to swallow it whole, just because you say it's true. WHO'S GULLIBLE? That's gullibility of the worst sort! Complimenting a person for agreeing with all your opinions and castigating them when they don't, which is bound to make them want to agree so they can be intelligent and creative too--that's mind control if anything is. Who's a mind slave?
Did the quiz offer any good talking points? Yes. And I agree with them that a little skepticism about what we see and are told is a good thing. We should investigate and dig into controversial issues for ourselves. That's healthy.
Lean to the left or the right. I don't care. What sticks in my craw is when people are so bleeping desperate to sway me to their way of thinking that they will insult my intelligence, infer that I am either a Nazi or a pinko Commie and should have no right to exist in their idea of a decent society. I'm sick of it. If their paradise is so wonderful, I'll figure it out on my own.
Until then, there's a whole bunch of folks in Mississippi and Louisiana who could use that kind of energy in constructing a house or feeding people. Shut up and go help them.

Cattle in the Cane

"Cattle in the Cane" was only one of the many tunes I heard played at the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention. The campus at Athens State University hosts the festival each year, and it is always a joy to attend.
Bluegrass music is a cherished Southern tradition, and there's always plenty of it at Fiddlers. Small groups sit all around the grounds and jam as the people stop to listen to their music. The competitions take place on the front porch at Founders Hall, with its four massive ionic columns flanking the performers. That porch has heard a lot of music in its 163 years. Hoopskirts have swished over it with genteel rustlings, military boots have tramped across it, sabres rattled in front of it, and now, Nikes and Reeboks trot across it, as their owners seek their college degrees. It's a beautiful old structure, crammed with history and tradition, and I love it dearly. In quieter days, I've sat in the rockers on that porch, the autumn sun streaming across the drive, studying, passing the time of day, or just enjoying the view.
Fiddlers is a magic time on campus. All activity stops on Wednesday, so the place can ready itself for Friday and Saturday. The RVs start showing up, and the arts and crafts vendors begin setting up their booths. The visitors begin streaming in on Friday night and don't stop until the end of the fiddle-off Saturday night, when the "Fiddle King" is crowned. The event is clearly family-oriented as well, and there is a feeling of utter security that one rarely finds anywhere else.
With the smell of funnel cakes, steak sandwiches and popcorn in the air, the visitor is hard-pressed to pick just a couple of vendors. The temptation to pig out is a strong one. Fiddlers is the big fundraiser for most of the campus clubs,and they go all out for the event.
But it's the music that keeps people coming back every year. Musicians from several states come to play that unique variety of Americana known as bluegrass. The vendors of musical instruments know this and they show up with their wares, as well. A visitor can see fiddles, guitars and banjos for sale, of course, but can also get a gander at more unusual instruments such as resonator guitars, dobros and hammered dulcimers.
The music can be heard a block away from campus, and it draws people in like the calliope at a circus. It is as rewarding to sit and listen to the small groups play as it is to hear the competitions.
If there is a better way to spend a fall day than to have wonderful music rain down on me and lighten my heart, I don't know about it.