MANY TRUTHS
Copyright 2020 Don Ray
Webpages tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following.
Got trapped in a conversation the other day, one of those interminable and pointless “conversations” you seek to run away from but misguided politeness chains you to keep listening.
The irrelevant topic at the beginning led to the topic of Corona 19, as does any conversation these days.
It was fascinating listening to his tortured (ir)rationales to reconcile his innate fear and survival instinct with his religious faith in the news sources he follows. Masks don't help but he wears a mask to go shopping. Children can't catch or transmit covid but he's looking into a tube to drop candy into their trick or treat bags in order to maintain more separation. The reported covid deaths are not real and are due to other natural causes, but he hopes parents won't come to his door with their kids on Halloween. People know if they are sick and contagious but most people with covid don't know it.
On and on the conflicted logical knots became more and more entangled, in part in response to my queries about the evident contradictions and conflicts. . Most disturbing, he finally resolved the whole quandary by declaring "there are many truths". And there it is, the great destructive force of our times, the great deceit that has without warning overcome our society. "There are many truths."
Besieged by contradictory "truths" from "information" sources that appeal to the most base of human instincts, these "truths" in turn conflicting with basic survival instincts, and lacking the intellectual wherewithal to face and reconcile these conflicts, the modern American resorts to claiming "there are many truths".
There is a profound difference between "many truths" versus "the truth is complex, the truth is multifaceted, the truth is not yet verified, the truth has yet to be discovered". “There are many truths" denies the incontrovertible existence of an objective reality. "There are many truths" divides us into separate universes of consciousness with no commonly shared reference frame. "There are many truths" declares that the speaker is right, period, by definition, inviting no learning - growth - or accommodation. "There are many truths" precludes compromise and empathy.
It seems at first to be only a subtle difference of phrasing, "many truths" versus "complex still to be determined" truth. But the difference is far more profound, the former a nominally psychotic solipsism with the inevitable effect of erecting antagonistic barriers, for some of your "truths" will inevitably pose threat to mine. "There are many truths" deceptively promises liberation but in fact is a seduction into a prison of solitary confinement.
In contrast, “The truth shall set you free" speaks of liberation into an ever-growing universe of enduring understanding and ever growing relationship with others connected through that objective - hence mutually shareable - understanding.
Copyright 2020 Don Ray
Webpages tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following
Copyright 2020 Don Ray
Webpages tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following.
Got trapped in a conversation the other day, one of those interminable and pointless “conversations” you seek to run away from but misguided politeness chains you to keep listening.
The irrelevant topic at the beginning led to the topic of Corona 19, as does any conversation these days.
It was fascinating listening to his tortured (ir)rationales to reconcile his innate fear and survival instinct with his religious faith in the news sources he follows. Masks don't help but he wears a mask to go shopping. Children can't catch or transmit covid but he's looking into a tube to drop candy into their trick or treat bags in order to maintain more separation. The reported covid deaths are not real and are due to other natural causes, but he hopes parents won't come to his door with their kids on Halloween. People know if they are sick and contagious but most people with covid don't know it.
On and on the conflicted logical knots became more and more entangled, in part in response to my queries about the evident contradictions and conflicts. . Most disturbing, he finally resolved the whole quandary by declaring "there are many truths". And there it is, the great destructive force of our times, the great deceit that has without warning overcome our society. "There are many truths."
Besieged by contradictory "truths" from "information" sources that appeal to the most base of human instincts, these "truths" in turn conflicting with basic survival instincts, and lacking the intellectual wherewithal to face and reconcile these conflicts, the modern American resorts to claiming "there are many truths".
There is a profound difference between "many truths" versus "the truth is complex, the truth is multifaceted, the truth is not yet verified, the truth has yet to be discovered". “There are many truths" denies the incontrovertible existence of an objective reality. "There are many truths" divides us into separate universes of consciousness with no commonly shared reference frame. "There are many truths" declares that the speaker is right, period, by definition, inviting no learning - growth - or accommodation. "There are many truths" precludes compromise and empathy.
It seems at first to be only a subtle difference of phrasing, "many truths" versus "complex still to be determined" truth. But the difference is far more profound, the former a nominally psychotic solipsism with the inevitable effect of erecting antagonistic barriers, for some of your "truths" will inevitably pose threat to mine. "There are many truths" deceptively promises liberation but in fact is a seduction into a prison of solitary confinement.
In contrast, “The truth shall set you free" speaks of liberation into an ever-growing universe of enduring understanding and ever growing relationship with others connected through that objective - hence mutually shareable - understanding.
Copyright 2020 Don Ray
Webpages tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following