During my morning bathtub musings, I thought about Truth. (I probably shouldn't attempt that before my first day's cup of coffee, but bathtubs are highly conducive to musing.)
Truth scares us, doesn't it? Whether it's Galileo's assertion that the Earth is, in fact, not the center of the universe to those pesky little bloggers pooping on Dan Rathers' party, we tend to run from the truth.
As Fox Mulder said, the truth is out there. I don't think he meant that it's just located somewhere, waiting for us to find it. It's OUT THERE. It is not us and we are not the truth. The truth exists whether we like it or not.
I'm getting cranky at this generation's tendency to deny the truth, and I'm not just slamming on the Democrats or Dan Rather. As long as we sidestep truth (and by that, I mean both objective fact and transcendent values), we are essentially trying to be our own gods. We become our own highest moral authority as we try to bend reality (or the perception of it) to meet our own goals. It's bad policy.
Musing over.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Speaking of truth, look up Mark Helprin, and some of his comments on how the present war is being run. Truth certainly exists, even if we wish it didn't. I've been a Republican all of my adult life, unable to vote Democratic because, in so many ways, they are both the Evil and the Stupid Party. But often, the Republicans aren't that much better. I'm trying to put together something on this subject on my own blog. As a society, and even individually, we have a tendency to want to sidestep the truth.
Years ago, I read a book about Munich -- I think it was Telford Taylor's, but not sure. In any case, when discussing why the Allies sold the Czechs out to Hitler, the author pointed to the genuine desire of the British and French peoples to have their "normal lives...continue a little longer." Often, I think that's where we are as a society. All kinds of Really Big Problems are coming down the Pike, but as a society, we aren't ready to deal with them yet. We want "our normal lives" to continue for a "little longer."
The easy response to this is that our leaders are failing us, but are they really ? Nobody wanted to listen to Churchill in 1938. Nobody wants to listen to somebody who tells us trouble is coming now, either. But that doesn't mean it's not, because, as you say, the truth exists whether we like it or not.
"As long as we sidestep truth (and by that, I mean both objective fact and transcendent values), we are essentially trying to be our own gods. We become our own highest moral authority as we try to bend reality (or the perception of it) to meet our own goals. It's bad policy."
You are talking about the president here, right? This pretty much captures the character of his administration.
Actually, in some cases, yes.
Post a Comment