Don Quixote and the Perils of Fake News
Is it possible to gain valuable insight into twenty-first century politics from a seventeenth century classic? I am referring to Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, one of the greatest literary masterpieces ever written. In Don Quixote Cervantes addresses a disturbing problem affecting millions of people today: the perils of incorrect thinking and reasoning.
Cervantes was writing during conflicting times, the European religious wars that began following the Reformation in the sixteenth century and continued throughout the Counter-Reformation up until the early part of the eighteenth century. Although the wars had religious roots, eventually the conflict extended into the politics of Europe. While these wars were mainly fought between Catholics and Protestants, the message today has little to do with religion and theology. Instead, this brief work focuses on Don Quixote’s behavior and the search for truth in today’s politics.
Throughout his novel Cervantes deals with two extraordinary attributes that allow humans to stray off, sometimes, from the rest of the animal world: thinking and reasoning. When aided by logic and empirical evidence these mental skills enable humankind to develop ideas and process information as a means to seek truth. Truth is generally defined as that which accords with fact and empirical reality.
Not much elaborate thinking is required to conclude that people prefer to be told the truth rather than to be lied to. At times, however, human behavior becomes obstructed by emotions, desires, and needs that lead us into false beliefs. On these occasions, proper thinking and reasoning allow us to grasp ‘real reality’ divested of layers of emotional, cultural and ideological make-up and discern between proper and improper behavior.
Cervantes and his Don Quixote of La Mancha
Cervantes’s primary objective in his Don Quixote is to warn the reader of the threat to the individual mind and to the social order of not being able to distinguish between a fictitious, non-real reality, better known today as ‘fake news’ or ‘alternate universe,’ and real or factual reality. (Ch 74). Cervantes’s narrative is a conflict between truthfulness and falsehood, between a fictitious reality and reality backed by sound evidence. In effect, quite often the reader of Don Quixote may overlook that the connection between the first three chapters, the voluminous mid-section, and the concluding chapters are nothing other than a study of human behavior.
Quixote’s inability to properly process information led to his bizarre behavior. Today, we run the risk of becoming contaminated by sources of information purposefully disguised as non-partisan and designed to confuse, and others that are simply the product of a runaway imagination.
Who is Don Quixote?
To most people, the term quixotic evokes images of chivalry, romanticism, and heroism. Such attributes, however, are difficult to sustain when they stem from a character who is a madman and fights windmills believing they are giant monsters. (Ch 8). Such incongruence confronts the reader with two incompatible images.
Don Quixote (his real name, Alonso Quijano, does not appear until the end) is a hidalgo, a member of the noble class who lives off the land and is exempted from paying taxes because of his military service. He appears in the novel around the age of fifty not having done anything spectacular–as opposed to Cervantes, who besides being considered a great writer, was regarded as a brave warrior having lost his left arm during the naval Battle of Lepanto (1571), earning him the nickname, the one-armed man from Lepanto.
Although Cervantes does not tell us much of Don Quixote’s earlier years, he indicates in the first chapter that he is of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser, and a great sportsman. This is quite a revelation. Cervantes is telling us that this madman who exhibits bouts of paranoia and schizophrenia was, at some point, of sound mind and a stable person.
Cervantes stresses that Don Quixote spends most of his time doing nothing meaningful, and supposedly bored with himself he begins to,
read books of chivalry with such ardor and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field sports, and even the management of his property… In short, he became so absorbed in his books … and with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits. His fancy … so possessed his mind that the whole fabric of invention and fancy he read of was true, that to him no history in the world had more reality in it. (Ch 1).
In time, Don Quixote’s mind is profoundly altered. While reading fiction does not poison the mind (and may even be beneficial to our intellect), Don Quixote’s acceptance of the history of chivalry as truthful leads him to act as if fiction is real. To him, the world of chivalry, its heroes, and adventures exist, and no one can persuade him differently. As humans tend to behave according to their beliefs and perception of reality, Don Quixote is no exception. Once immersed in a world of his own, Don Quixote is unable to step out from the unreal world he creates.
Don Quixote is seemingly in the midst of a middle-age crisis wishing for personal fame through grandiose behavior. Ready to begin his make-believe life, he dons metal body armor and a lance, rides on an old, worn-out horse he takes for a war horse, Rocinante, and creates an imaginary lover, a princess he names Dulcinea del Toboso, who he hopes to find one day and to whom his heroic actions are dedicated.
As a knight-errant, Don Quixote needs someone to assist him, a squire or apprentice. He persuades a middle-aged, humble, and simple-minded peasant, Sancho Panza, to leave his family in exchange for the promise of becoming the wealthy governor of an imaginary island.
Riding on a donkey, Sancho loyally follows his less-than-sane mentor. Being financially poor and uneducated plays a role in Sancho’s decision. He believes he has nothing to lose. He sees in the knight-errant a man of noble ideals that truly inspires him. But Sancho is not reality-blind. He often alerts Don Quixote of his errors. He advises him judiciously, even forcing him to acknowledge his mistakes in some instances.
Don Quixote’s self-righteousness, however, is his downfall. Unwilling to listen and oblivious of the surrounding reality he acts irrationally, unaware of his own absurdities. He becomes intolerant and aggressive, committing acts that today (and at the time) would be regarded as insensitive, authoritarian, and criminal behavior. He confuses inns with castles and prostitutes with princesses. (Ch 2). He severely injures a guest at an inn who took it upon himself to set aside Don Quixote’s armor from a well to water his horses. (Ch 3). In another instance, he initiates a fight with a security guard and is badly beaten. He mixes potions to create a magical balm that would cure him of his injuries. Instead, he becomes ill. (Ch 17).
During another of his errands, Don Quixote sees clouds of dust. He thinks they are armies ready to attack him. Although Sancho warns him they are only two herds of sheep, Don Quixote does not believe him and begins to slaughter the sheep. Irritated, the shepherds throw stones at him, knocking out several of his teeth. (Ch 18). He then sees a group of men (priests) carrying the corpse of a dead man on their way to bury him. Believing they were demons responsible for the person’s death, Don Quixote attacks them causing one of the men to fall from his mule and break a leg. (Ch 19).
He sees a transient riding on a mule wearing a metal basin. Don Quixote believes the basin is the mythic golden Mambrino’s helmet whose wearer would become invincible in battles. Sancho tells him it is only a pot he uses to protect him from the rain. Nevertheless, acting upon faulty reasoning he charges the man who fearfully drops the basin. Don Quixote chooses to believe that someone had unknowingly melted the valuable piece, so he retrieves it and begins to wear it as a helmet. (Ch 21).
Later, he stops a group of armed men guarding a dozen convicts on their way to prison. Feeling they should be set free because they are being taken against their will, he ignores the crimes they have committed. He fights the guards enjoined by the convicts who are then set free. After the convicts refuse to report to his beloved Dulcinea, as he has requested, he insults them and he is attacked and robbed of his possessions. (Ch 22)
Medically speaking, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association would describe Don Quixote’s behavior, if long-lasting, as schizophrenic and/or psychotic. However, if we recall, Don Quixote was of a hardy habit (strong and resilient) and a great sportsman; someone well in tune with the real world. He loses his ability to reason only after he begins to read books about chivalry and concludes that stories about knights-errant are factual history despite being only the subject of medieval tales. It is also important to bear in mind that Quixote’s eccentric behavior takes place only when he chooses to live in the alternate universe of chivalry. Outside of his make-believe world, he shows as much common sense as others, even holding coherent conversations with Sancho and others.
In his idleness Don Quixote finds himself wishing to find meaning in his life. Cervantes tells us that once he becomes a prisoner of his false thinking he searches for ways to make a difference in the world by righting every kind of wrong, and exposing himself to peril and danger from which … he was to reap eternal renown and fame.
Cervantes also tells us that, aside from fame, Don Quixote’s behavior stems from the person he wants to be, good and virtuous. During one of his travels, a goat herder asks him why he is armed even though he is in a peaceful country. He answers,
I go through these solitudes and wilds seeking adventures, resolved in my soul to oppose my arm and person to the most perilous that fortune may offer me in aid of the weak and needy. (Ch 13).
The disconnect is obvious. He wishes to be a practitioner of social justice through action that often leads to injustice and criminal behavior. Although Quixote possesses noble values, he engages in destructive behavior because of faulty reasoning.
Misreading Idealism
Don Quixote’s description as a madman has led even academics to characterize idealism negatively, suggesting a type of behavior that is impractical or naive. This is, in my view, an arbitrary and misguided definition. Ideals are noble goals that humans set for themselves as a means to improve the human condition. Chastising idealism is not Cervantes’s intention. While he correctly indicates that the history of chivalry is fictional (nothing other than fake news), he does not suggest that righting wrongs in life is evil.
Idealism allows us to imagine what is best or better than what there is. Ideals set moral and practical paths and motivate us to approximate them as much as possible. Living without ideals leaves us in a chaotic world unable to distinguish between good and evil, thereby preventing us from attaining solutions to critical issues we face. Idealism makes it possible to attain law and order where there is chaos, peace where there are conflicts, eradicate poverty, or cure a disease. After all, high-minded ideals do not emerge out of nothingness; they are imagined (thought) to be possible because humans regard them as necessary.
Nonetheless, there is always a gap between what we desire to accomplish and the obstacles life imposes. This gap is narrowed by the way we think and reason. While Don Quixote strives to attain noble goals, his reasoning betrays him. Quixote’s improper and immoral behavior has nothing to do with his ideals but with how he seeks to attain them.
Today’s Reality
In Don Quixote’s world, there were insufficient information sources to enlighten people. Journalism did not exist other than through pamphleteering or gazettes. The printing press was a scarce resource. Information was available by word of mouth from merchants, soldiers returning from wars, and from local gossip and individual tales of events that had taken place. The reliability of the information was dubious. Research had not emerged as a reputable means to process raw information and confirm the how, what, why, when, where, and who that is essential to the accurate descriptions of social and political events.
However, fictional sources of information were not the source of Quixote’s bizarre behavior or Cervantes’s main complaint. There were, indeed, good stories written about medieval knights-errant. Cervantes cites famous literary works, such as Amadis of Gaul, the Palmerin books, History of the Famous Knight – Tirante el Blanco, The Fortune of Love and others. What causes Don Quixote to lose his wits is, once again, his belief that the content of these fictional accounts was real.
As distinguished from Don Quixote’s times, today’s world is characterized by vast amounts of information accessible to readers and moving swiftly through the printed press, radio, television, internet, symbolic flags, instantaneous messaging applications, and a most dangerous device, word of mouth. Another difference between Don Quixote’s and today’s world is how complex society and its institutions have become. As a result, domestic and international problems that affect us all have multiplied. This means that understanding the issues becomes more important. Such conditions, particularly during an election season, serve as fertile soil where deception, confusion, and uncertainty about important issues grow. This we see in the flourishing of conspiracy theories, misinformation (the spread of imagined information), and disinformation (the willful development of false information), both of which make the task of becoming an informed citizen more difficult.
Acceptance of conspiracy theories and other types of erroneous information is today’s equivalent of what books on chivalry did to Don Quixote’s mind. The reason for which we buy into fake news is, however, different from what happened to our Spanish knight-errant. Today’s social and political problems have become so acute that they create uncertainty and emotional insecurity. Hence, the safest way to restore emotional balance is to wildly believe in theories and information that make us feel secure; that makes us know that we are right, even if the basis of the information we accept is false.
That falsehood can lead to emotional security is an old escape mechanism known as denial. Living in denial makes us feel temporarily safe. I say ‘temporarily safe’ because denial of reality can hurt us individually, socially, or politically. Denying that we may be sick prevents us from going to the doctor; ignoring the risks of accepting fake news does not allow us to deal with the issues until it is too late.
Belief in false information happens throughout the political spectrum, left and right, among liberals and conservatives. However, it has been correlated as appearing more among older people who feel uncertain about the rapid changes society is experiencing. Such fear makes many of us, regardless of education or status, want to return to the good old times that made us feel secure. Thus, we imagine that there are ‘deep states’ that no one can identify. We reject science in favor of grandma’s recipe for pandemics while ignoring issues related to climate change despite overwhelming evidence.
Many believe, without proof, in the so-called ‘great replacement’ theory, an attempt to dilute the whiteness of society by giving free rein to migrations from non-white countries. Or the old anti-Semitic trope that Jews control the finances of the world. We blame presidents for inflation or high oil and food prices even though there is little the executive branch can do in a free market economy to regulate these forces. We believe in socialist conspiracies that can take away God, freedom, and our private property. Or the discredited ‘birther theory’ suggesting that Barack Obama was ineligible to run for office because he was not born in the U.S. Lately, a most unsettling conspiracy theory has arisen in which millions of people continue to believe that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was rigged despite decisions to the contrary by conservative Supreme Court Justices.
Desperation at times leads to acts of violence because citizens choose to hold on to false conspiracies. For example, a loose religious ideology is emerging that calls for a predominantly white Christian religion to extend its influence over society. Since there are multiple Christian denominations whose tenets are in opposition to each other, no one knows what type of claims these sect followers intend to proclaim as legitimate.
As the political climate heats up during the current electoral contest an incendiary event can create consternation among citizens. In the after-hours following the first attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, conspiracy theories surfaced even before any meaningful investigation was conducted. There were Democratic voters who chose to believe that Donald Trump had staged the entire affair and a QAnon individual was also involved. On the conservative side, there was a false claim that Secret Service officials prevented one of their own from shooting the perpetrator. Even a US Congressman asserted that Biden ordered the attempt on Trump’s life. Willful recklessness, similar to Quixote’s slaying of sheeps he thought were armies, poisons the political atmosphere adding to fear and the potential for violence.
In this sense, Don Quixote represents the image of millions of people with various levels of education who are of sound mind, have jobs, and look after their families, and yet at times end up acting impulsively and recklessly when their emotions override their thinking. Such behavior ignores or is unwilling to accept reality (even if such reality is proven to be true) because it does not align with what we choose to believe. Instead, we become anchored to what makes us feel good, or what is in line with our political ideologies regardless of how truthful their content might be. Meanwhile, we neglect to develop a critical mind that would allow us to discern between truth and falsehood.
The Demise and Rebirth of Don Quixote
Unfortunately, many continue to perceive Don Quixote as a madman all along because they do not know how his life ends. Quixote was reluctant to admit he was mistaken. Had he accepted that the sources of his information about chivalry were fake news his mid-air castles would have come tumbling down. The whole reason that gave meaning to his life as a knight-errant would have been crushed. Today’s Don Quixotes exhibit a similar pattern; an uncomfortable feeling that occurs when one’s beliefs are in opposition to the truth or real reality. Confronting the possibility of being mistaken is an awful feeling, a reason most of us tend to oppose the truth and continue to believe in our mistaken assumptions.
Many people ignore that Cervantes’s Don Quixote represents the triumph of optimism over pessimism, mind over body, logic over inconsistencies and contradictions, honor and conviction over indifference. Providing us with a glimpse of Quixote’s radical re-transformation, Cervantes indicates that sometimes the knight-errant acknowledges his misdeeds; that at times, he can reason properly. This behavior is significant because it is Quixote’s first step into recovery.
Upon realizing that Don Quixote has taken leave of his senses, his housekeeper asks Samson Carrasco, who becomes one of Don Quixote’s close friends, to dissuade her master of his foolish intentions. Carrasco agrees and does so by going along with Quixote’s fictitious reality. He believes Don Quixote is a man of his wits who has temporarily gone astray. If he can help him rid himself of the fooleries of chivalry Quixote’s sanity may be restored. (Ch 65).
One day, he appears before Don Quixote masquerading as the Knight of the White Moon, and challenges him to a fight. All the Knight of the White Moon (Carrasco) asks is that, if he wins, Quixote will not go on further adventures and instead will retire to his village for one year and live there without putting hand to sword, in peace and quiet and beneficial repose.
Knowing Don Quixote well, Carrasco believes that, if conquered, the knight-errant would unhesitatingly obey, rather than contravene or fail to observe the laws of chivalry; and during the period of his seclusion he might perhaps forget his folly, or there might be an opportunity of discovering some ready remedy for his madness. (Ch 15). Agreeing to the terms, Don Quixote engages in a jousting match in which he is trounced. Believing he was invincible, the knight-errant is thrown into the ground suffering a humiliating defeat. Being a man of honor Quixote humbly accepts that he has been overpowered. He asks his opponent to take his life, as he has won, but the Knight of the White Moon refuses saying they both will abide by the initial agreement. (Ch 64). Carrasco continues to believe that Don Quixote will be true to his word. (65).
The knight-errant’s defeat, along with his honor and convictions, leads him to reconsider his beliefs:
Am I not he who has been conquered? Am I not he who has been overthrown? Am I not he who must not take up arms for a year? Then what am I making professions for; what am I bragging about; when it is fitter for me to handle the distaff than the sword? (Ch 65).
As he continues to regain his sanity, he turns to Sancho and acknowledges that being a man of his words he will keep the promise he has given. Without realizing it, Quixote takes a step back suggesting to Sancho that once he rests for a year in seclusion, we shall pick up fresh strength to return to the never-forgotten calling of arms. (Ch 66). Despite agreeing to keep his promise, Don Quixote continues to entertain the possibility of returning to his duties as a knight-errant. Such is the emotional conflict between wishing to cling to his fantasies and accepting the truth that reality is now imposing on him.
Don Quixote had become intoxicated by fantasy. Similar to alcoholics and drug addicts who retreat into detoxification centers to cure themselves (in this work the addiction is to fake news and conspiracy theories), he eventually decides to stay off the banality of the world for some time and head to a pastoral-like location described as environmentally friendly and devoid of all temptations to go back to his old life.
He thinks of becoming a shepherd. (Ch 66). Regaining his sensitivity while in seclusion, he forbids Sancho from continuing to sacrifice himself for his master, realizing that Sancho has a family to support. (Ch 71).
In the words of Sancho, Cervantes makes a definitive statement that characterizes the crucial battle Don Quixote had to wage to regain his senses: Open your arms and receive, too, your son Don Quixote, who, if he comes vanquished by the arm of another, comes victor over himself, which, as he himself has told me, is the greatest victory anyone can desire.
Quixote’s victory was to overcome his self-deception. I am finished with these fooleries, he says to himself… Let us push on straight and get to our own place, where we will give free range to our fancies, and settle our plans for our future pastoral life. (Ch 72).
Stepping away from fake news and into real reality takes courage and a dosage of humility; antidotes that seem to be lacking today in fighting craziness. Don Quixote believed he was invincible but empirical reality now showed him he was wrong. He begins to reflect on what had happened to him while under the spell of fictitious narratives.
He retires to his chambers, but no sooner does he experience a sudden realization that God has freed him from his fantasies. (Ch 74). Although Cervantes provides a religious explanation, modern psychology attests that shocking events may trigger reflection and lead a confused person to accept reality as is.
He tells his niece,
My reason is now free and clear, rid of the dark shadows of ignorance that my unhappy constant study of those detestable books of chivalry cast over it. Now I see through their absurdities and deceptions… (Ch 74)
Wishing to make a last confession he gathers his friends and tells them,
I am no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but Alonso Quixano, whose way of life won him the name of (being) Good. Now am I the enemy of Amadis of Gaul and of the whole countless troop of his descendants; odious to me now are all the profane stories of knight-errantry; now I perceive my folly, and the peril into which reading them brought me; now, by God’s mercy schooled into my right senses, I loathe them. (Ch 74).
Upon listening to his words, the three acquaintances conclude that Don Quixote has returned to his senses and that he was sound of mind. (Ch 74). As part of his last will, he tells his niece that if she wishes to marry and inherit part of his estate it cannot be to a man who believes in books of chivalry. (Ch 74).
Samson Carrasco, the Knight of the White Moon and his friend, who was instrumental in restoring Don Quixote to his senses, writes the epitaph that reads in part, “A crazy man his life he passed, But in his senses died at last.” (Ch 74).
The greatest confirmation of the danger of equating fiction or fake news with real reality comes from Cervantes by way of his fictional Arab historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli, through whom he reveals his motive for writing Don Quixote:
for my desire has been no other than to deliver over to the detestation of mankind the false and foolish tales of the books of chivalry, which, thanks to that of my true Don Quixote, are even now tottering, and doubtless doomed to fall forever. (Ch 74).
There appears to be no reason why Cervantes would express such dislike for fictitious narratives about chivalry. Certainly, a great fiction writer would appreciate others like him, which he does in his novel. Nonetheless, it would be folly to disregard the purpose of this last sentence. Cervantes would know that fiction as an entertainment genre is not harmful to the mind; that is, insofar as it does not lead us to confuse real reality with an alternate reality. When it comes down to factual events the rules are simple: true reality requires ample and well-supported evidence.
Nonetheless, we may ask if it is possible for something to be currently true and be shown to be false in the future? Of course. That is how research and experimentation work. We hold beliefs to be true as long as there is substantial evidence that backs them. If new information is uncovered that is reliable and alters past beliefs, then beliefs change. Hence, it is necessary to keep an open mind when we examine information about current events. Passing judgment on social and political events relying on unsubstantiated beliefs becomes toxic to the political process. While believing without seeing is a definition of faith, both human and religious, and a dosage of skepticism is healthy, the moment we say to ourselves, ‘This is true,’ we better have valid information to support it. Cervantes alludes to this view in the words of Samson Carrasco when he describes the role of the historian:
It is one thing to write as a poet, another to write as a historian; the poet may describe or sing things, not as they were, but as they ought to have been; but the historian has to write them down, not as they ought to have been, but as they were, without adding anything to the truth or taking anything from it. (Ch 3).
Falsehood and Democracy
High regard for the truth and facts becomes instrumental in safeguarding the democratic process that seems to be weakening nowadays. Many people believe that democracy is solely a political process in which the candidate with the most votes is elected to office. A Western-style democratic system, however, is above all a moral proposition as it elevates human dignity by allowing and protecting citizens’ right to be the ultimate guardians of the nation.
Safeguarding democracy requires that citizens be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood. This is the highest distinction a human being can attain. Democracy, nonetheless, can be easily subverted when citizens lose credibility in their institutions; when falsehood can be dispersed without there being procedures to assert the facts; when moral character is no longer valued; and when the possibility to peacefully and amiably discuss our differences becomes instead an exercise in arrogantly shoving falsehood unto others, through violence if necessary.
Nowadays, manifestations of self-absorbed and self-centered behavior have sprung among political elites and individuals who spread false information intentionally and carelessly that deceive millions of citizens. At the end of his life, Don Quixote rejected a fictional reality that initially led to his bizarre behavior. It is time we do the same.