Historian and Philosopher Yuval Harari indicates that any type of ideology can become similar to a religion in the sense that people adhere to it strictly. He implies that two of the religions with the biggest impact in the 20th century have been capitalism and communism.  He writes that a new technoreligion called Dataism will likely have an enormous impact on the future. 

Harari writes, “ Dataists believe that free access to information will make the world better.” Who can refute this idea? He later writes in the conclusion of  his book Homo Deus that  “In the 21st century censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information. We just don’t know what to pay attention to, and often spend our time investigating and debating side issues. In ancient times having power meant having access to data. Today having power means knowing what to ignore.”

This begs the question: what types of irrelevant information should people spend less time on? 

This could consist of information that is not related politics, history, finance, science or other academically related subjects. A lot of Americans spend enormous amounts of time watching netflix and sports. This post isn’t meant to try and shame individuals. A lot of us are working long hours everyday and we like to be able to unwind by watching a favorite sport or show. I enjoy watching basketball and netflix. I enjoy shows such as The Office, Breaking Bad, The Peaky Blinders, and Parks and Recreation, but I recognize that I should limit how much time I spend watching these shows. 

The world does not improve, unless people truly comprehend its problems. It does not need to be understood all at once, but we are doing a disservice to future generations if we do not seek to instill the importance of knowledge and academics. Students would like history and politics a lot better at school if they were to hear about it at home. It is more enjoyable to learn about an idea if we 

1. Understand the idea 
2. Can relate the idea to previously learned information 

If an individual does not enjoy an academic subject, it is often a result of at least one of those two factors. 

History is essential to learn because if one does not understand it, their political views are more easily manipulated by propaganda and flat out false information. Simply put, understanding elements of the past better helps us to understand reality better. 

If more  people were to be exposed to the right kind of information then better policies would be passed by our politicians. This is in large part because better politicians would be elected in the first place.