This isn't a rehash of my
"The Simple Truth" post. This is an examination of the
concept of truth and it's application in today's world.
Truth is that which is. I think everyone can agree on that. History is the most truthful of all things in that what happened before can often be deciphered based on physical evidence. This isn't always the case - especially when writings are involved and someone's interpretation of the evidence differs from others.
This highlights the issue of what is truth nicely, though. Each person lives in a slightly different world than everyone else. They have their own perceptions, their own concepts and their own expectations of what their world is like. Sometimes these are based on reality - that upon which everyone agrees. Sometimes, they're based on no more than wishful thinking, fantasy and/or denial. But they each interpret the evidence of reality around themselves as individuals.
I'm not saying there should be universal agreement about what the truth is. But when folks start talking about the truth, one must remember that what they say is truth may not be a truth to another.
For example, President Bush's wife Laura Bush once said that she doesn't believe the polls that say her husband's popularity is in the toilet. As evidence, she reportedly said something to the effect of, Everywhere I go, people are always cheering for him. This is her reality. And it's the truth. Everywhere she goes, people cheer Bush. This is because if you are not an ardent, hard-core Bush supporter, you can't get anywhere near a Bush-based function. Ever noticed that lately Bush's outdoors appearances have been almost exclusively on military bases? This is because there are too many people wanting to show up to protest his policies to have a more publicly accessible venue.
So the reality is that Laura Bush sees the polls as lies because all she's ever allowed to face are Bush-friendly crowds. That doesn't mean the polls are lying or wrong or slanted. It means that the whole situation isn't apparent to Mrs. Bush.
So this highlights why there are many truths for many people. A lack of data. People base their realities only on what they learn. If they refuse to learn something, that part of reality is not available for them to decide what's truth and what isn't. Most call this daily living. I call it living in half truths. And a half truth isn't truth. It's deception. Whether deliberate deception to keep people from knowing the truth by the manipulation of the media or a refusal on the part of the individual to entertain notions that make them uncomfortable, a half truth proves nothing except the ignorance of the speaker who states their truth as the ONLY truth. It may be their reality. But, as has been shown, it ain't necessarily the truth.
Let's look at some examples of truth:
Religion. Obviously here are a boundless number of examples of people deluding themselves. That part I don't really care about. It's when they insist on foisting their notion of truth on other people who already have their own notion of truth that the conflict arises. I once asked a door-to-door religion peddler, "Why are you assuming your god's truth is better than my truth?"
Because he was told to, by his god, he replied.
Prove it, I told him. He couldn't. I kept him talking for three hours. In the end, he went away empty handed and I asked, "Do you know why I talked with you?"
He admitted he didn't.
"By my keeping you here, talking to someone who would never be converted to your faith," I told him with a certain amount of malice, "I have kept you from inflicting your point of view on my neighbors and disrupting their lives as you have disrupted mine. But I figure it's better to keep you here pounding your head against an unyielding wall than for you to convert one more fanatic who will then go out and disrupt the lives of other people who want nothing more than to be left alone with their own truths."
I'm not a nice person with people who want to infringe on my reality.
But again, it highlights the point - there are many truths. Those who think outside their comfort zone tend to get a much wider, and inclusive, perspective than those who define their reality by very narrow-minded guidelines. It doesn't make them any more able to grasp the 'ultimate truth' than the next person, but it brings them a bit closer to seeing behind the facade of their own reality and admitting they don't always have all the answers.
Look at former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich. He spoke at Liberty University during graduation ceremonies and told the graduates to combat 'radical secularism'. He's thinking that because there's a backlash against the religious rights' attempt to dominate politics in America for the last six years that it's radical secularism. He thinks that because the unconstitutional, religiously-based endorsements by the US government are under attack, it's radical. Inasmuch as there is a wave of secularism sweeping the country (and there is) there is an equal amplitude wave of the religious-based agenda trying to do the same thing. But the religious wave came first. A fact Newt conveniently forgot. So he classifies the natural reaction of people to combat imposing a radical religious agenda on the American people as 'radical secularism'.
Let's not also forget that he's a politician and is there to keep his name in the spotlight, even if he's not wielding power directly.
For a change of pace, lets look at television advertisements. SUV's and pickups and sports vehicles are almost always shown with a 'professional driver on a closed course - do not attempt' notice in tiny letters somewhere you're not looking. Instead what you see is a vehicle zipping along at what seems to be 100 miles an hour, swerving past obstacles with cat-like reflexes all to a driving bass back-beat while a gravely-voiced announcer caters to the viewer's alleged lack of testosterone by implying you, too, can do this kind of thing if only you buy the vehicle.
What they never show is you sitting at a stand-still in traffic sucking up a gallon every fifteen minutes. They don't show you laying upside down in an over-turned vehicle because you didn't know the center of gravity was so high and you're really not a professional driver on a closed course. They never show you trying to squeeze into a parking space that says "Compact Car Only". And they sure as hell don't show you the gas bill or the cost of liability insurance for a vehicle that outweighs most others on the road by a factor of two.
They sell you the fantasy. You live with the reality.
So, remember, that every time someone speaks to you of anything concrete, it is almost certainly a half truth. And if it depends on a point of view, then it is definitely a half-truth. Find your own truth, and then look beyond it. You'll be surprised at how different reality actually is.
Truth is that which is. I think everyone can agree on that. History is the most truthful of all things in that what happened before can often be deciphered based on physical evidence. This isn't always the case - especially when writings are involved and someone's interpretation of the evidence differs from others.
This highlights the issue of what is truth nicely, though. Each person lives in a slightly different world than everyone else. They have their own perceptions, their own concepts and their own expectations of what their world is like. Sometimes these are based on reality - that upon which everyone agrees. Sometimes, they're based on no more than wishful thinking, fantasy and/or denial. But they each interpret the evidence of reality around themselves as individuals.
I'm not saying there should be universal agreement about what the truth is. But when folks start talking about the truth, one must remember that what they say is truth may not be a truth to another.
For example, President Bush's wife Laura Bush once said that she doesn't believe the polls that say her husband's popularity is in the toilet. As evidence, she reportedly said something to the effect of, Everywhere I go, people are always cheering for him. This is her reality. And it's the truth. Everywhere she goes, people cheer Bush. This is because if you are not an ardent, hard-core Bush supporter, you can't get anywhere near a Bush-based function. Ever noticed that lately Bush's outdoors appearances have been almost exclusively on military bases? This is because there are too many people wanting to show up to protest his policies to have a more publicly accessible venue.
So the reality is that Laura Bush sees the polls as lies because all she's ever allowed to face are Bush-friendly crowds. That doesn't mean the polls are lying or wrong or slanted. It means that the whole situation isn't apparent to Mrs. Bush.
So this highlights why there are many truths for many people. A lack of data. People base their realities only on what they learn. If they refuse to learn something, that part of reality is not available for them to decide what's truth and what isn't. Most call this daily living. I call it living in half truths. And a half truth isn't truth. It's deception. Whether deliberate deception to keep people from knowing the truth by the manipulation of the media or a refusal on the part of the individual to entertain notions that make them uncomfortable, a half truth proves nothing except the ignorance of the speaker who states their truth as the ONLY truth. It may be their reality. But, as has been shown, it ain't necessarily the truth.
Let's look at some examples of truth:
Religion. Obviously here are a boundless number of examples of people deluding themselves. That part I don't really care about. It's when they insist on foisting their notion of truth on other people who already have their own notion of truth that the conflict arises. I once asked a door-to-door religion peddler, "Why are you assuming your god's truth is better than my truth?"
Because he was told to, by his god, he replied.
Prove it, I told him. He couldn't. I kept him talking for three hours. In the end, he went away empty handed and I asked, "Do you know why I talked with you?"
He admitted he didn't.
"By my keeping you here, talking to someone who would never be converted to your faith," I told him with a certain amount of malice, "I have kept you from inflicting your point of view on my neighbors and disrupting their lives as you have disrupted mine. But I figure it's better to keep you here pounding your head against an unyielding wall than for you to convert one more fanatic who will then go out and disrupt the lives of other people who want nothing more than to be left alone with their own truths."
I'm not a nice person with people who want to infringe on my reality.
But again, it highlights the point - there are many truths. Those who think outside their comfort zone tend to get a much wider, and inclusive, perspective than those who define their reality by very narrow-minded guidelines. It doesn't make them any more able to grasp the 'ultimate truth' than the next person, but it brings them a bit closer to seeing behind the facade of their own reality and admitting they don't always have all the answers.
Look at former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich. He spoke at Liberty University during graduation ceremonies and told the graduates to combat 'radical secularism'. He's thinking that because there's a backlash against the religious rights' attempt to dominate politics in America for the last six years that it's radical secularism. He thinks that because the unconstitutional, religiously-based endorsements by the US government are under attack, it's radical. Inasmuch as there is a wave of secularism sweeping the country (and there is) there is an equal amplitude wave of the religious-based agenda trying to do the same thing. But the religious wave came first. A fact Newt conveniently forgot. So he classifies the natural reaction of people to combat imposing a radical religious agenda on the American people as 'radical secularism'.
Let's not also forget that he's a politician and is there to keep his name in the spotlight, even if he's not wielding power directly.
For a change of pace, lets look at television advertisements. SUV's and pickups and sports vehicles are almost always shown with a 'professional driver on a closed course - do not attempt' notice in tiny letters somewhere you're not looking. Instead what you see is a vehicle zipping along at what seems to be 100 miles an hour, swerving past obstacles with cat-like reflexes all to a driving bass back-beat while a gravely-voiced announcer caters to the viewer's alleged lack of testosterone by implying you, too, can do this kind of thing if only you buy the vehicle.
What they never show is you sitting at a stand-still in traffic sucking up a gallon every fifteen minutes. They don't show you laying upside down in an over-turned vehicle because you didn't know the center of gravity was so high and you're really not a professional driver on a closed course. They never show you trying to squeeze into a parking space that says "Compact Car Only". And they sure as hell don't show you the gas bill or the cost of liability insurance for a vehicle that outweighs most others on the road by a factor of two.
They sell you the fantasy. You live with the reality.
So, remember, that every time someone speaks to you of anything concrete, it is almost certainly a half truth. And if it depends on a point of view, then it is definitely a half-truth. Find your own truth, and then look beyond it. You'll be surprised at how different reality actually is.
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