“A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”
– Booker T. Washington
Everyone in Western societies is constantly bombarded by competing sources of information, if not outright propaganda, all proclaiming that they are the sole source of “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”, and everything else is nothing but a pack of malicious lies (which is not unlike the views of many religions, for that matter). Obviously, they can not all be right, and they might very well all be wrong.
Why then do I even bother to discover the truth about a matter? Wouldn’t it be easier to just read the New York Times, Politico or Truth Social to find out what is important (in their opinion) for me to know?
For far too many people, this is exactly what they do, and their curiosity extends no further. Go back only a few hundred years, and it was no doubt the same, whatever the village priest or elder says, defines the “truth”; whether it is the crops are failing therefore lets sacrifice a virgin in the volcano, or the old women caused the cow to stop producing milk therefore she is a witch and lets burn her at the stake.
Authority Figures
We all have a tendency to believe whatever we are told by authority figures, especially at an early age when we are sponges for information. We don’t know how things work, and we depend on those around us to explain this strange world we live in.
As we get older, some of us start to catch on that not everything we have been told about history, how the world works, or current events is the unvarnished truth. It becomes obvious that we are living in a bazaar of ideas, and everyone is shouting at us, if not attempting to shove down our throats, their version of the truth.
Digging Deeper
It is at this point that people seem to fall into two camps: either they blindly accept the version of reality promoted by the group they consider themselves a part of, be it a political party, religion or organization, or a few become skeptical and start asking “why and how” questions when presented with unsubstantiated opinions.
As I write my essays, I research the topic and look for information from varied sources in order to attempt to inform and verify my conclusions. Could these sources be feeding me a line of BS? Absolutely! This means I try to seek out sources that have not shown themselves to be consistent purveyors of lies.
What do I consider to be untrustworthy sources? I ask myself: Has the information this source has promoted been shown to be false over time? Does this source resort to straw man, ad hominem and other logical fallacies in its arguments? Does this source show clear biases in what they report and how they report it? Does this source lie about what they have reported in the past and fail to acknowledge their mistakes?
In all these ways, I attempt to identify sources that are more likely to be wrong or biased so I can avoid them, rather than attempting to find those that are true, because as Pontius Pilate said, “What is truth?“. What would appear to be true today could turn out to be a total crock of s* tomorrow.
However, if there is one consistency in the world, it is that liars lie. Once I’ve identified a source as being a regular purveyor of lies (i.e., most of the mainstream media), I don’t waste time trying to find the rare nugget of truth in the mound of manure they constantly produce. I do, however, use them as a reliable source of counterinformation: when they are all shouting to the rooftops that “x” is true, that is to me a pretty sure sign that “x” is false, and vice versa.
Walking the Zig-Zag Path
I have to use my beliefs to help make the best decisions I can today, not at some unknown point in the future when I have more or better information. The world is not waiting for me to make up my mind, and analysis paralysis can be just as fatal in modern life as it was for my ancestors crossing the savannas of Africa holding a spear.
Finding the truth about a matter is similar to a group of blind men trying to discover the true nature of an elephant. Some will shift their positions in order to get as full a mental picture as possible. Others, however, are wedded to holding onto the tail and think that the constant affirmations they receive mean that they alone have the best picture of the elephant. However, their opinions smell as good as they do and are just as helpful.
Yet for all of my efforts, I know I have only developed a partial picture of the truth on most matters, not the truth itself. As such, I try to keep my mind open to new or more complete information that could show where I was wrong in my earlier conclusions. This has certainly played out as I have grown older, as impressions that were formed in the ignorance of my youth about the benevolence of authority figures and institutions, or the character of people, have changed dramatically as I grew older, wiser and more jaded by the corruption, deceit and injustice that pervades the world.
Could I be wrong in some of my beliefs? Absolutely, and I expect that I probably am; however, I don’t consider a misperception to be a fatal flaw in my character, only a sign that I lacked accurate information when forming my belief. When I find additional information that leads me to reconsider my position, I will alter my beliefs accordingly. Being dogmatic is just another word for being a thick-headed jackass in my book.