These are tough times for truth. I speak as someone old enough (73) to remember the time when there was a general consensus about what was true.
Here in the United States, the nightly news was widely watched. If you subscribed to TIME, Life, National Geographic, Saturday Review, and a daily newspaper, you'd be able to keep up on events in the world.
It was relatively rare for there to be a widespread disagreement about facts. Sure, after John Kennedy was assassinated conspiracy theories about the "real killer" surfaced. But they didn't infect the minds of a large proportion of Americans.
Things are different now.
With the rise of the internet, and the decline of mainstream media, people are able to fashion their own personalized take on reality. And almost certainly they'll be able to find a likeminded online community, no matter how outlandish the belief.
Moon landings were faked. Earth is flat. Alien abductions are happening. The Second Coming of Jesus is around the corner. Robert Kennedy Jr. is still alive.
The United States always has been a home for unconventional thinkers, rebels with or without a cause. However, nowadays it's possible for anyone to cobble together a view of reality that's far outside the mainstream without doing much thinking.
All they have to do is find the right web site, Facebook page, online discussion group, or whatever, and the craziest idea, totally unhinged from reality, can be found cloaked in pretensions of truth that can draw gullible individuals in like an alcoholic attracted to a liquor bottle.
Intoxicating. Yet decidedly unhealthy.
Tomorrow the January 6 committee is holding a primetime hearing where they'll detail Donald Trump's actions (more accurately, inactions) while the nation's capitol was being attacked by insurrectionists. I've watched every minute of each hearing so far.
They've been a marvelous lesson in how to go about telling the truth. Talk to people in the know. Crosscheck what they say, especially if there are contradictions. Seek tangible evidence. Weave known facts into a reason-based narrative.
Yet...
A disturbingly large percentage of Republicans continue to believe Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. And Trump hasn't stopped with his lie that those who invaded the Capitol were peaceful protesters, not violent insurrectionists.
Such is the power of untruth.
Truth can be uncomfortable. Truth can hurt. Truth can dismantle our most cherished beliefs. Truth can be difficult to discern. So many people prefer to cling to falsehoods. Rather than modify their understanding of reality to match the facts, they use fake facts to manufacture a made-to-order reality.
We all do this to some extent. Sometimes the cold truth of reality is too difficult to endure without putting a warm blanket of fantasy around ourselves. This can be fine. Fiction is a marvelous form of literature. It also can be an effective way of helping us get through tough times.
So long as we realize what we're doing. Research shows that a placebo can make us feel better even if a doctor tells us, "This is just a sugar pill."
That's how I've come to view religion, mysticism, and supernatural forms of spirituality. They're sugar pills, almost certainly lacking any truly effective ingredients. But they can make us feel good. And in a world where so many people feel bad, finding a way to feel better is difficult for me to argue against.
I just don't like it when feeling good is equated with truth. Know the difference.
Like I said, sometimes truth can hurt. If you're a truth seeker, you're going to feel pain at times. But it can be a sweet sort of pain, because even when truth hurts, there's satisfaction in knowing that we're in touch with something real.
"A disturbingly large percentage of Republicans continue to believe Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him."
..........That is the very disturbing part in all of this. Not that someone as transparently dishonest, and staggeringly stupid, and utterly cowardly and self-serving, as Trump should exist, and that he should have done what he did; but that so many people were taken in by him, and continue to be taken in by him.
Large swathes of the world have fallen prey to forces of superstition and faux-religiosity taking away from the hard-won progress of the last few decades. Unfortunately these forces seem very closely matched in the US with the forces of sanity and order; and what happens in the US will in a way point the way to where the world at large is headed.
I hope we'll be able to see Trump rot in prison, which is where he belongs. Both for his broader dishonesty, as far as his financial dealings, as well as this sorry business. But politics being what it is, and the Courts and judges having become what they have, that is far from certain.
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | July 21, 2022 at 11:40 AM
"I just don't like it when feeling good is equated with truth. Know the difference.
Like I said, sometimes truth can hurt. If you're a truth seeker, you're going to feel pain at times. But it can be a sweet sort of pain, because even when truth hurts, there's satisfaction in knowing that we're in touch with something real."
.....Very well put! *applauds*
Absolutely, truth sometimes can be very uncomfortable, painful even. And yet, that's a "sweet sort of pain", absolutely, even that discomfort not without some satisfaction. And the differnce between feeling good about something, and knowing the truth of it, is something that so many do not in fact grasp; and even we who do, do so often struggle with it ourselves, because let's face it, discomfort and pain aren't pleasant; and yet, there's no other way one can be or think or act, but in consonance with the truth, as well as we can grasp it. Well said, Brian. *applauds again*
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | July 21, 2022 at 11:49 AM
Oy. I have no love for Trump or the Republicans, but the Jan 6 committee has been pretty much nothing but a display of political theater- very far from truth seeking . With regards to believing outlandish stuff, neither political faction seems to have a monopoly on the over flow of nonsense . I have "woke" young family member who believe some of the wackiest stuff you could imagine . I think the absurdities are rather well distributed.
Posted by: Cassiodorus | July 21, 2022 at 03:02 PM
I feel somewhat uncomfortable about aspects of truth. Basically, truth is the actual facts of a matter as in a physical fact such as: - ‘It is raining hard’, or ‘If I throw a stone into the air, it will fall back down’. Such practical, simple truths are the truths of a simple, uncluttered mind. Mathematical truths can also be part of an orderly mind.
But truth to most of us is easily confused with beliefs and assertions, which opens the gate to all manner of squabbles and conflicts. Of course, to believe or assert something does not necessarily make it true although there is a huge conditioned tendency to blindly or almost automatically, accept beliefs as truths. And yes, scientists have beliefs – or hypothesis – which are soon discarded or revised if the don’t fit the facts.
The question then is, why do people believe in something enough to think or assume it is the truth. There seems to be an awful lack in the lives of us humans. Okay, so a precarious or awful life situation can be comforted by a belief, but what of those of us who are relatively comfortable and secure? Perhaps our minds are normally, perpetually anxious. How then can the mind, which houses existential fear and anxiety be free of this burden – without adding some subtle, extra belief to the issue to ease our uneasiness?
Posted by: Ron E. | July 22, 2022 at 11:50 AM
Human beings are rational animals . As such , we are philosophers and cannot be otherwise .
Posted by: Cassiodorus | July 22, 2022 at 12:55 PM
“Truth. Is just a word. I wish more people understood it.”
One of the most liberating experiences there can be, is the realization, that just because some thing is written in a book or proclaimed by someone, as being the absolute truth, is actually just their conditioned and subjective opinion that you are free to reject on the basis of your own conditioned and subjective opinion.
Of course, there will always be things that are true in now-ness because they are factually correct in now-ness.
There will be many statements that are true within a specific context and many personal beliefs that individuals will consider to be the truth.
Therefore, it will always be helpful to distinguish the difference between what is true (factually correct within a particular context) and what is truth; a fixed and unchanging certainty about something physical, emotional, psychological, or any combination thereof.
Throughout our lives, and in a vast array of contexts, we will accept many things as being true.
Some of those things will be rooted in credible evidence, and others will be based on none.
These become our personal truisms.
Some will change when presented with new information, and others will remain firm despite new information refuting them.
With such, Life living still goes on ……………………..
Posted by: Roger | July 22, 2022 at 02:01 PM
@ Brian [ That's how I've come to view religion, mysticism, and supernatural forms of spirituality. They're sugar pills, almost certainly lacking any truly effective ingredients. But they can make us feel good. And in a world where so many people feel bad, finding a way to feel better is difficult for me to argue against. ]
I agree... mostly. Except for sandwiching "mysticism" inside a "supernatural" entree. The
true mystic has no requirement -unlike religion- that a follower believe blindly in every
mystic precept but only that which you confirm experientially within. This was dealt with
slowly, laboriously, exhaustively regarding RSSB's core tenet of GIHF... you remember
the one... that a recent CoC thread bogged down in. Even an atheist shunned by most
traditional religions would be welcome.
Posted by: Dungeness | July 22, 2022 at 05:44 PM