The Abandonment of Truth
Does Truth Matter?
Does the truth matter? We hear phrases like “your truth” and “my truth” used constantly now, but do these phrases really have anything to do with the truth at all? On the surface, they seem to but, as you think through what phrases like this are really communicating it becomes clear that they convey a meaning that is the opposite of the truth. They are phrases that clearly articulate a deliberate decision to choose to believe, or pretend to believe, something that is not actually true at all. For some reason, we are seeing this trend of disassociating from reality spreading throughout society, and it is beginning to have a destabilizing effect.
It has become fashionable to choose a personal or shared construct of yourself and/or the world that you want to believe is real. It is particularly beneficial to choose a personal version of reality that includes a narrative of struggle that has had to or must be overcome. The more that you can articulate a struggle the more sympathy and power you can accumulate.
A significant faction of society appears to have chosen to consciously reject truth and reality in favor of a set of ever-changing standards and then deceptively referring to their construct as “their truth.” Most of this seems to be trickling down from whichever political or pop-culture leaders are in vogue at the moment, but it is beginning to have a detrimental impact on society. Beyond the obvious problems with widespread delusions, it encourages support for ruinous solutions to fictitious problems, allows for the promotion of ideas that history has already tested and rejected, causes unnecessary anguish, and detracts from the real struggles that deserve our attention. It is like living in some bizarre combination of The Scarlet Letter, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and Lord of the Flies. Humanity is always one heartbeat away from the Lord of the Flies, but we do not need to voluntarily march headlong towards our own destruction.
“Humanity is always one heartbeat away from the Lord of the Flies”
Imaginary worlds can be wonderful places to visit when we daydream, read a book, or fantasize about how we might achieve our dreams. However, it would be extremely difficult to actually live in a world where no one’s version of reality is connected with anyone else’s, or if we attempted to force others to conform with our own personally constructed “truth” inside or outside of safe spheres for fantasy.
To begin with, we do not all share the same dreams. One person’s fantasy is another person’s nightmare. Even if we could all enjoy a shared delusion together it would not prevent reality from existing. Some people take hallucinogenic drugs and jump out of windows because they are convinced that they can fly. They may enjoy the illusion of being able to fly like Superman, but their delusion cannot prevent them from dying when they hit the ground. Would it be good and kind to encourage that person in their mistaken belief that they can fly when the reality is that they cannot fly, and would likely die if they tried? I think it would be better, kinder, and our duty, to inform them that they cannot fly, assure them that we care, that they would get hurt if they tried to live out their delusion, and then to keep them away from windows.
In a controlled environment like an institution, for example, there is probably very little harm in allowing a man to believe himself to be Teddy Roosevelt. He could safely run up the stairs with a bugle shouting “charge the blockhouse” or dig locks for the canal and graves for yellow fever victims in the garden. However, most of us do not live in institutions and have no safety net to protect us from harm if we choose to attempt to live out our delusions or fantasies in real life.
“stay away from those windows”
This relativistic trend, that is spreading everywhere from television to Congress, is becoming incredibly strange. Being a politically minded person, I immediately think of the climate change hysteria. Then, of course, there is the troubling rise in support for Socialism, particularly among young people. The most immediately concerning problem is this disturbing identity crisis trend among children who are only questioning themselves and their feelings because they are being taught, through a variety of sources, that all human sexuality is fluid. They are now questioning themselves because they are confused and because it has become popular and even powerful to question their identity and to be oppressed.
Climate Change
It is hard to imagine destabilizing a field like science where everyone expects new information to change opinions. Science is all about accumulating accurate data, theories, and constant questioning. The data is real information and the theories around it recognized as mere theories. Each piece of data is a small part of the overall fundamental truth that is slowly being discovered over time. With each discovery, our knowledge expands, and theories slowly evolve.
Relativistic thought in science appears to present itself as a supposedly permanent and unshakable belief in an unproven theory, with or without factual data, only to be replaced by another supposedly permanent and unshakable belief in a completely different unproven theory, only to be replaced by yet another supposedly permanent and unshakable belief in another unproven theory. It is a series of fluctuating false absolutes.
Have you ever heard of any decent scientist in your entire life, until recently, of course, pronouncing anything as permanently “settled science” particularly due to some kind of fictitious majority vote? No decent scientist would ever do that. Even if they were 99.99…% sure that they were correct they would still say something such as “based on our current level of understanding we think” or something to that effect. True scientific study would never be based on an expectation of any theory being considered permanently settled science. However, that does not seem to be the case anymore.
The inferno of climate change hysteria was ignited with the now-debunked claim that 97% of scientists believed in the wholly unsubstantiated theory of human-caused climate change, due to carbon emissions, that will destroy the world. Billions of dollars in lucrative taxpayer-funded research and mitigation later, and we have made virtually no impact on the supposed human-caused problem. Politicians are now telling us that the world will be destroyed in 12 years.
Not one of the climate change models successfully predicted anything. Considering the fact that we struggle to predict tomorrow’s weather it is not surprising that we would be unable to fully comprehend the complexities of our galaxy, planet and ever-evolving climate.
Regardless of the truth, we are all being compelled to have faith in the theory and are being pressured to enter into an economic suicide pact in an effort to save the world from theoretical destruction. Because of this delusional belief in an unproven theory, we now have school children weeping in legislative offices thinking that they will die in 12 years and that no one cares.
Socialism
One world-ending method of destruction based on self-delusion is of course not enough for humanity. We have to learn the calamitous lessons of the destructive nature of Socialism for ourselves rather than learning from the mistakes of others throughout history.
This shocking rise in support for Socialism, particularly among the youth, is incredible. Somehow, they managed to get through school without being taught anything about the horrors of socialism and the millions of people who have suffered and died because of it. They actually believe that it is the kind and moral option. If they have heard of the oppression, starvation, and mass murders of the past they are convinced that they are somehow going to be the first people moral enough to implement it correctly.
They seem to imagine some kind of glorified hippie commune where everyone is happy, healthy, has an iPhone, free Wi-Fi, and is surrounded by only that which is good. No one seems to have told them why the hippie movement failed either. Knowing the results of the supposedly moral policies of Socialism, and its comrades, I have this urge to yell “stay away from those windows, or you are going to end up living in squalor and dying like those poor people from the U.S.S.R. or eating food out of trashcans like the Venezuelans.”
Identity Crisis
Young people are always struggling to find themselves but most of them do not struggle to recognize their gender or find themselves attracted to members of the same sex. There are people who are genuinely struggling with a sense of their sexual identity and interest. However, the percentages of people who find themselves attracted to someone of the same sex, or with a lifelong belief that they are a person of one sex trapped in the body of the opposite sex, is incredibly small. Everyone struggles to understand their place in life, to learn about themselves, who they are as human beings, and typical aspects of human sexuality. However, most people will not find themselves wrestling with these particular sexual conflicts. They are just not as common as they seem to be considering the vast number of people we see in the media who are dealing with these conflicts.
“An unintended consequence of the effort to make everyone feel loved and accepted”
An unintended consequence of the effort to make everyone feel loved and accepted, along with this relativistic trend, seems to have resulted in the popularization and promotion of an inaccurate belief in the sexual fluidity of all human beings. We all have some aspect of ourselves that is different from others. Elizabeth Taylor, for example, had violet eyes and a double row of eyelashes. Neither of those things is typical but she was considered to be one of the most beautiful women of all time. While we are all unique in a number of ways, it is simply not true that all human beings are sexually fluid with no natural inclination to think of themselves as the sex that correlates with their body or to be attracted to members of the opposite sex. There is nothing shocking about this. There have been numerous studies that have shown this to be true.
These are just three issues that illuminate the destabilizing effect that the popularization of relativistic individualized “truths” are having on society. Apparently, those of us who have not succumbed to this trend, and still have a sense of the realities of life, are going to have to keep everyone else “away from the windows.”
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