Hog-Tied Truth

Truth coming out of the Well (1898) by E. Debat-Ponsan;

by Andrew Porter

Human affairs are tricky, and perhaps for this reason it is especially important to respect how vital ‘truth’ is in one’s relationship to self and others, in institutions, the presiding thrusts of culture, and any form of leadership. The cord is too commonly cut between what is real and acceptance of it. A society that abandons the inalienable value of truth-telling wrecks a whole host of ripe possibilities. The desire for confirmation bias cannot be the foundation of a democracy.

The current United States’ leadership and its sycophants willfully disregard truth and make falsity king. A propaganda mouthpiece called OAN (the One America News), that purports to be a “news network”, has been selected to be the Voice of America. A political pundit calls the organization “just another font of lies”. The United States is fundamentally divided between those who back veracity and those who are willing to accept lies and the injustice that attends them.

Untruth is like radon to a culture, a slow-acting poison. You can’t run a society or a government on deception and misrepresentation. Unsupportable views on justice, adherence to the Constitution, and principles of right simply erode the integrity of what cannot afford to be eroded. Lives depend on whether ‘truth’ is honored – or annihilated.

The hopeful outlook is that assaults on ‘the rule of law’ and the beauty of truth will be a crucible, forcing clarity and inspiring, in democratic countries, a new determination to back ‘truth’. Once loved and defended, ‘truth’ shines the brighter. Truth is the string in a string telephone; what can we hear if it is not there?

The problem of extensive falsity dogs the world currently. It will never not be surprising that there are a good number who do not particularly care about the ‘truth’ if it gets in the way of their suppositions.

A few years ago, Masha Gessen, the Russian-American journalist and activist, commented on Hannah Arendt’s ideas in an essay entitled: ‘Is Politics Possible in the Absence of Truth?’ concluding: 

“When lies overpower truth, politics dies. When politics dies, our world collapses, and we humans die too—because it is only in the world, among other humans, that we exist”.

Which is why a commitment to the truth ought to seriously be reenergised. The unthinkably awful is not just one viable option among others. 

‘Truth’ has, for a good while, been undermined by moral (as opposed to cultural) relativism. This dismisses or denigrates a single or universal set of moral principles. If one person's truth or ethical take is as good as another’s, something essential is and will be in decline. This may well contribute to a loss of moral vocabulary and a shared set of facts, causing people to be unable to distinguish patent falsehood from accuracy. There may be other factors as well, but moral relativism certainly encourages an animus against ‘central or accepted authority’. This paves the way for the siloing of media choices and people's susceptibility to a demagogue or authoritarian.

The veteran American journalist, Edward Miller points out that: 

“the disciplines of science and the rule of law have the same purpose: to find the truth through the careful, unbiased weighing of evidence.”

Miller wonders whether we will stand firm in the fight for this. Because lies are no basis for governance or for conducting any aspect of life. Lies—if they can be understood as such—cause harm to a whole range of things. They damage personal relationships; they undermine trust in institutions; they make government the opposite of a vehicle for advancing the common good.

The question today is, even if truth wins out in the long run, will we be able to weather anti-truth in the short run?