Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The Failure of the Search for Truth

We no longer seek the truth.  Or perhaps, we no longer have a stomach for it.

The concept of absolute truth - that something is true and therefore other things are false or, to quote an ancient philosopher. "A is A.  A is not B"  - is something that we seem to seek achieve less and less in our culture, let alone the world at large.  The search for truth - or at least "True Truth", as Francis Schaeffer called it - has morphed into something much less.

Truth is now nothing more or less that what one feels that it should be.

People take and select the "truth" that suits them, even as they seem to call upon some general cultural shared "truth" to cover those areas which they do not have particular feelings or axes to grind in.  There is  no longer an absolute "right" or "wrong"; instead there exists only the truth for what one  feels should be true, not necessarily what is true.

It becomes even more concerning in that we seem to have surrendered the search for truth in the first place.  This has become nothing a search for the justification of the position's one holds.  Anything contrary to this is either to be buried or simply ignored.

Examples?  There are plenty throughout the entire cultural landscape - but to select them is not the point of my writing on them.  The simple fact that we no longer seek to pursue actual truth is the matter that concerns me the most.  Why?  Because the longer we seek to not pursue the truth, the more susceptible we become to lies.

Historical example?  The Third Reich.  Observer over a relatively short period of time - say 1932 to 1938 - how a culture and nation could turn its back on the truth of the historical Christianity they claimed and a 200 year history of arts and literature into a culture that ultimately supported (directly or indirectly) the extermination of  groups of people based purely on ancestry or physical appearance.  There are many reasons (obviously a great deal more than my short paragraph) but one of them, I would argue, was their abandonment of the continual seeking of the truth in a time of great personal and national strife in search of what fitted their needs at the time.

The bigger question, I suppose, is how to combat this.  To this, I wish I had a better answer.  We currently face a culture and a way of thinking that rejects (by and large) any concept of absolute truth except in the most specific of cases.  And how does one meaningfully combat behaviors that practiced by one's out group are beyond the pale and worthy of protesting but when practiced by one's in-group are hardly worthy commenting on and perhaps okay?  If a thing is truly wrong then it is truly wrong, not just when it is not our in group practicing it.

I wish I were more hopeful than I am.  But day by day, week by week, I become less and less hopeful.  We seemingly continue to abandon any search for truth for the comfort and security of the truth that pleases us most.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:33 PM

    Now that's truth! Seriously.... I heard a talk show host say something along the line that "that's your truth, but my truth is different." Other comments about each person's truth being different. I did a double take! Now it seems to be said as truth - that there is no truth. If that makes sense. Or is there no sense either?

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    1. To quote a very famous historical figure, "What is truth?" Kind of appropriate around Easter.

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  2. As I see it you are mixing up social truths and attempting to give them the power of scientific facts. Social truths can change from year to year, regions etc. while facts usually don't, although I suppose they can change over time.

    Let's look at a few facts that most people indoctrinated by the Multi-cult today find uncomfortable to mention and many will outright deny although they are facts. Africans have a gestation period five days less than Caucasians and eight days less than Asians. With only one exception only Caucasians can digest milk. African spines attach tot he base of the skull 15 millimeters further back than Caucasians and 20 millimeters further back than Asians.

    Those are facts. What they mean is another topic but social truths can be just as statistically factual.

    The ultimate problem today is not stereotyping or social facts it's denial of differences and the desire to participate in victim politics.

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    1. Hmm. Maybe I am Preppy, although I would argue that social truths are equally important in the fact that define how we interact as a polity. And denial of differences is an issue too. What I was trying to get at - and maybe quite badly, to be fair - is our apparent inability to call something by its name regardless of whether or not it favors us or not. If something is undesirable societally speaking it should be undesirable all the way around the horn, not just when it serves our purposes. Sorry if I did not quite get there.

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    2. I don't think what is desirable or detrimental to society as a whole has much bearing on anything these days.

      For one thing as a population that includes all races we are living in at least two separate worlds. The city folk have a completely different life and ideas than the country ones or even those in smaller towns.

      We have become so different that in fact we are at least two if not more people these days and once that happens there will be no more "truth" that crosses the line.

      My truth is that what the liberals are doing is detrimental to society and I think the facts show I am right. On the other hand they will never see it that way.

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    3. True enough that we live in completely separated worlds - in an odd sense, the modern world which was supposed to make us more connected has isolated us on a societal level by making it even easier to find those that believe just like us. And I have thought, like you state, that the we have become so different that truths may no longer cross any lines at all - unfortunate, because I think that means that we as a culture or society unwind faster and faster because there is less and less holding us together. Maybe that is a good thing, although I can think of few such experiences that have gone well in that regard.

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Comments are welcome (and necessary, for good conversation). If you could take the time to be kind and not practice profanity, it would be appreciated. Thanks for posting!