Thomas Jefferson

On January 8, 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Richard Price from Paris:

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”

Clearly, Jefferson believed that the more information that was available to the public, the better informed they will be, and the better the governments they run will be. One wonders what Jefferson would think of the overabundance of information (much of it incorrect or biased) that is available today via the Internet. Does all this information that bombards us constantly help make us better citizens, or have we gone past the point of being well informed that Jefferson recommended?