The world today needs Ernest Hemingway more than ever. Hemingway, whose style of minimalism was born out of the profession he was in – journalism. Journalism in Hemingway time obligated the journalist to state the facts and keep opinions at bay. This kept the news contained and thus forbade the superfluous opinions from clustering the facts.
Later, as he became a writer, he kept his style which later went on to be called the “Hemingway style” where he cut out the superfluous imagery his counterparts used and let the story lay bare. In today’s world where news is run on opinions – minimalism has become obsolete and perhaps redundant. This – the obvious moving away from the world of minimalism — however, has brought to fore a world run by opinions and opinion seekers. People from all walks of life (who need not be subject matter experts) opine and harangue on matters which can be as grave as the country’s defense situation and diplomacy.
Despite the world being governed by “Twitter journalism” there is still a greater need for a more responsible journalism bringing out the facts than working doubling up as a hearth of creating and delving in opinions. While we continue to live in a world which is getting increasingly polarized and opinionated sparing no part which is not run down by opinions, one craves for a breather – a breath away from the overstated heaviness and the percentages proclaiming ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’ over every aspect of our lives.
Life at all times feel like a stage which demands a thumbs up or a thumbs down. There are no intermediaries, no time to relax and mull, but a mirage of opinions without caring to know the facts which divide without empathizing. While the power to descent an opinion and state one’s own the quintessential etiam si omnes — ego non — has always been considered a the keeper of individuality and a prime indicator for freedom, however there is a thin line when this freedom becomes a burden and a power to descent gets overused it runs the risk of losing its real meaning.
Pick up an article from a newspaper from the 1950’s and you’ll know what I’m talking about. The art of stating news was just that – news, stating the facts not proposing opinions and theories. The world perhaps was more chaotic then than the one we live in now, but it was definitely bereft of extreme polarization. We have been served opinions which have the capacity to turn virulent. It is a time where we are spoon fed opinion without giving us the freedom to make that opinion out of our choice. We regurgitate the opinions of the opinion makers.
There is a need to set the mind free to make its own choice out of its own accord to been given the tools to interrogate and find the truth rather than act as a primate on someone else jingle. We need to have more of you – Hemingway !