You have your truth and I have mine. There shouldn’t
be a problem – until someone lies. Unfortunately, lying has been elevated as a
virtue in present India.
There are all sorts of truths, some
of which are irrefutable. As a friend said the other day with a little
frustration, the eternal truth is this: No matter how many times you check, the
Wi-Fi will always run fastest when you don’t actually need it – and collapse
the moment you’re about to hit Submit. Philosophers call it irony.
Engineers call it Murphy’s Law. The rest of us just call it life.
Life is impossible without countless
such truths. Consider the following;
·
Change is inevitable.
·
Mortality is universal.
·
Actions have consequences. [Even if you may seem invincible,
your karma will catch up, just wait.]
·
Water boils at 100oC under normal atmospheric
pressure.
·
The three angles of a triangle always sum up to 180 degrees.
·
The disorder in the universe keeps increasing. [Science calls
that truth entropy.]
You can’t question such truths. They
are universal. Eternal too, I dare say.
Then there are what we may call Authoritative
Truths, those which come from scriptures, traditions, and such venerated
places. Consider the following:
·
The earth was created by God for the sake of humans. [Abrahamic
religions]
·
The Vedas are eternal and infallible.
·
Prophet Muhamad is the final messenger of God.
These may or may not be truths for
you depending on which religion you believe in. For me, all the three are
false. Yet, for millions of people one or the other is true. The problem with
these truths is that they can blind people to real truths. They can also
engender conflicts and strife.
Reasoned truths would be the ideal
answers to the above problem. These are truths arrived at through logic,
philosophy, and rational debates. I know that reason alone doesn’t satisfy us
humans. We are highly emotional and quite a bit imaginative too. Most of us can’t
live without our gods, demons, and fairies. Personally, I keep these esoteric entities
confined to fiction.
Fiction gives us some of the best
truths, which we may call Creative truths. Art, literature, and other
imaginative works can reveal emotional and existential truths. I love such
truths. They are far more valid than any authoritative truth for me.
Then there are Relative truths,
those shaped by culture, perspective, context, etc. These have limited
relevance and may not be as dangerous as authoritative truths.
Moral truths teach us how to live
better lives, based on ethics and values. They are necessary for peaceful,
harmonious existence. But hardly anyone seems to care for them nowadays. Those
who care seriously may find themselves in prisons, especially in contemporary
India.
Power truths tower above all the above
truths, especially in countries governed by narcissistic dictators who pretend
to be the most benign (if not divine) universal do-gooders. Propaganda and
manipulation forge truths in such countries. I live in a country where lies are
far more dominant now. And those lies are all Power truths.
If you wish to read more about the above truths, go to Julian Baggini’s slim book, A Short History of Truth: Consolations for a Post-Truth World (2017).
Thanks for this revision of Epistemological leaf on Truth. Very enlightening, indeed! The truth by power is called post-truth or alternative facts or both, but they are coloured falsities and the Aswathama type half truths of Kurukshetra, after uttering which, Yuhishtira's chariot wheels never rode above the earth, but got halted in the muck. This was quoted by S. A. Dange, to the Congress, headed by none other than Jawaharlal Nehru. To prove the point that Nehru and Indira Priyadarshini had no business in toppling the First Ever Elected Communist Govt of Kerala, through a stage-managed Vimochanasamaram, which saw the Christians and Nairs of Kerala, out on the streets. Satyameva Jayathe.
ReplyDeleteI heard about this Kurukshetra Speech of Dange from the autobiography of Maverick Mani S Aiyer, of Chaiwallah and Secular Fundamentalism. fame.
ReplyDeleteAs a boy, the Aiyer kid visited the Parliament and happened to listen to the speech. Dange was an orator. No. Doubt.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the detailed and enlightening comments. I was always rather scandalised - later amused - by the coloured falsities that a even a god had to resort to on the Kurukshetra. I'm sure that's one of the reasons why the RSS and its affiliates have no qualms about using fabricated truths in their glorious march to victory. Modi and Shah are the ideal leaders in this battlefield.
DeleteI presume neither Modi nor Shah are Kshatriyas, though pretend to. Be. They want to ksatriyaize the entire Bharatsvsrshs of their imagination. They wish to outwit even Arjuna and even Karna, in this. Kshatram becomes s weapon and vehicle of hate.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Modi belongs to some OBC, and Hindutva mythology is yet to legitimize its divine origins. Soon our children may read in NCERT history books that Modis were born from Brahma's brain.
DeleteShah is not even a Hindu. I wonder how NCERT is going to fix that genealogy.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteIn short, truth is relative to where one stands, with the exception of the immovables: Change is constant, death is inevitable. It is these two factors that permit the philsophy, "this too shall pass." YAM xx
"Truth is relative to where one stands, with the exception of the immovables." No one can define truth better in the context of this post. Thanks, Yam. For being here with your wisdom.
DeleteIt's too bad that truth has become subjective. It shouldn't be. But, alas, many have found ways to make it so.
ReplyDeleteTruth can be subjective. The tragedy is that it is being falsified for personal advantages.
DeleteI echo Liz's comment. Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you. Our truth is what we know and believe.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how some people totally reject our truth, and impose their truth as correct and the final verdict!
We're living in a time when fraudulence is accepted as strategy.
Delete