Does The Truth Matter?
Ok we're on a bit of a roll here aided by the good doctor's insomnia. I realise that the above question seems all too obvious. Of course the truth matters. Sure, we are taught from a young age that being truthful and not telling lies is the way to go in terms of ethical and moral conduct. However I don't mean to ask the question from a normative perspective. Specifically I'm interested in truth and or the search for truth and whether they have any relevance as driving forces for what occurs in the world today. Has truth become a victim of expediency (if it wasn't already throughout history)? I would suggest that as an independent motive or object for guiding behaviour and conduct it has become secondary (probably always has been) to set preferences and agendas. I will aim to illustrate this through a number of examples taken from different spheres of human activity.
Let's take the Anglican church in Africa for example. Now the 9th Commandment in the Bible is "Thou Shalt Not Lie" which seems to suggest that the truth and being truthful is of value in itself. It doesn't say that you can lie in certain circumstances to forward what you believe to be a good cause (though I'm sure we could all quite imagine certain circumstances where it might be necessary). But the general essence of it is, the truth matters. So it suprised me a number of years ago watching a documentary about how an Anglican bishop in Africa (can't remember the country or diocese) was urging his parishoners and fellow Africans not to use condoms, not only because he prefered abstinence, but because in his educated view, condoms were too unreliable and dangerous. He said something along the lines of "they are full of holes so AIDs can spread through them". I'm no expert on the physical properties of condoms and the relative chances of transmission but I do feel very much that the good Bishop was exaggerating the danger if not OUTRIGHT LYING to further his agenda - more sexual abstinence, less promiscuity.
Now if the Lords spiritual do not value truth what about the secular leadership i.e. politicians, policymakers, and Statesmen (well yeah they are mostly men)? Let's look at the Iraq campaign. Oh yes I can hear the collective groan from the audience. I'll be brief. The whole Iraq campaign was a done deal, even before the charade of going to the United Nations. So the truth of whether there was WMD did not matter one bit at all. Nor did it seem the truth of the prospects of success for the Western alliance. There were many voices of great learning and experience, analysts, academics, diplomats, military commanders even (like General Eric Shinseki - the then US Chief of Staff, General Anthony Zinni - immediate predecessor to the Central Command Chief Tommy Franks) who warned that the whole endeavour would likely f**ck up. Now they were much closer to the truth but were ignored. Why? Because the people with power and authority couldn't give a crap about truth, they were furthering an agenda.
Now let me pick a another example or examples of where truth does not matter. In many realms like advertising, or even general relations between people in certain social settings, appearances & presentation far outweigh the matter of truth. It matters not whether one has the best product or not or whether people even need it, what matters is that people believe that it is the best, and that they believe that they need it. So for example you have a powerful pharmaceutical industry in the United States hawking 5 zillion drugs for many illnesses which don't even exist like "Social Anxiety Syndrome" (I think we used to call it shyness), or doping children with dextroamphetamines (a.k.a. "kiddie speed") because their parents couldn't discipline them. Then you've got people who enter reality TV contests because they believe that if they win the grand prize of a nose job it will solve their problems with self esteem and relationships.
Harking back to one of my earlier posts about occupational status we see that the appearance of the person as seen through this prism also distorts or devalues the truth. The measure of a person is not in "the content of their character" as the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King would have liked, but in the outward trappings of their job, car, suburb, social set, breeding, or looks - or at least that is the measure as the world sees it.
So what does one do in this morass of powerful agendas, and endless superficiality which so routinely discard the truth that it almost seems natural? What does it profit a person to value the truth or even trouble him or herself to find out about it if the truth ultimately cannot prevail ? Is it better to avert one's gaze, avoid asking the difficult questions, when ultimately it seems that when push comes to shove, power, delusion and expediency trump all? Do we seek the enlightened life or the comfortable one and might it be too much to hope for both?
Let's take the Anglican church in Africa for example. Now the 9th Commandment in the Bible is "Thou Shalt Not Lie" which seems to suggest that the truth and being truthful is of value in itself. It doesn't say that you can lie in certain circumstances to forward what you believe to be a good cause (though I'm sure we could all quite imagine certain circumstances where it might be necessary). But the general essence of it is, the truth matters. So it suprised me a number of years ago watching a documentary about how an Anglican bishop in Africa (can't remember the country or diocese) was urging his parishoners and fellow Africans not to use condoms, not only because he prefered abstinence, but because in his educated view, condoms were too unreliable and dangerous. He said something along the lines of "they are full of holes so AIDs can spread through them". I'm no expert on the physical properties of condoms and the relative chances of transmission but I do feel very much that the good Bishop was exaggerating the danger if not OUTRIGHT LYING to further his agenda - more sexual abstinence, less promiscuity.
Now if the Lords spiritual do not value truth what about the secular leadership i.e. politicians, policymakers, and Statesmen (well yeah they are mostly men)? Let's look at the Iraq campaign. Oh yes I can hear the collective groan from the audience. I'll be brief. The whole Iraq campaign was a done deal, even before the charade of going to the United Nations. So the truth of whether there was WMD did not matter one bit at all. Nor did it seem the truth of the prospects of success for the Western alliance. There were many voices of great learning and experience, analysts, academics, diplomats, military commanders even (like General Eric Shinseki - the then US Chief of Staff, General Anthony Zinni - immediate predecessor to the Central Command Chief Tommy Franks) who warned that the whole endeavour would likely f**ck up. Now they were much closer to the truth but were ignored. Why? Because the people with power and authority couldn't give a crap about truth, they were furthering an agenda.
Now let me pick a another example or examples of where truth does not matter. In many realms like advertising, or even general relations between people in certain social settings, appearances & presentation far outweigh the matter of truth. It matters not whether one has the best product or not or whether people even need it, what matters is that people believe that it is the best, and that they believe that they need it. So for example you have a powerful pharmaceutical industry in the United States hawking 5 zillion drugs for many illnesses which don't even exist like "Social Anxiety Syndrome" (I think we used to call it shyness), or doping children with dextroamphetamines (a.k.a. "kiddie speed") because their parents couldn't discipline them. Then you've got people who enter reality TV contests because they believe that if they win the grand prize of a nose job it will solve their problems with self esteem and relationships.
Harking back to one of my earlier posts about occupational status we see that the appearance of the person as seen through this prism also distorts or devalues the truth. The measure of a person is not in "the content of their character" as the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King would have liked, but in the outward trappings of their job, car, suburb, social set, breeding, or looks - or at least that is the measure as the world sees it.
So what does one do in this morass of powerful agendas, and endless superficiality which so routinely discard the truth that it almost seems natural? What does it profit a person to value the truth or even trouble him or herself to find out about it if the truth ultimately cannot prevail ? Is it better to avert one's gaze, avoid asking the difficult questions, when ultimately it seems that when push comes to shove, power, delusion and expediency trump all? Do we seek the enlightened life or the comfortable one and might it be too much to hope for both?
posted by Dr. Kananga at 1:26 PM
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