Truth Today

If I had to name something that triggers an avalanche of controversy, the very last thing I would cite would be "truth." After all, isn't the whole essence of truth, by definition, supposed to be "black or white" or "it is or it isn't?" Either two plus two is four or it isn't. Either the Nazis exterminated millions of Jews in the 1930s and 1940s or they didn't. Either someone is pregnant or they are not. No wiggle room. There is no nuance when it comes to truth, or as it is described in the dictionary, "that which is considered to be the supreme reality." A fact is put forth and everyone, even if they do not like it, nods in agreement. End of discussion.


In today's world, however, it turns out the truth no longer sits atop its mantle unchallenged. In fact, it turns out truth spends all its time taking on one challenger after another. In these times in which we live, truth has lost its crown of being that which it is not to be questioned. More and more, it seems, people carry around with them their own truth as to what constitutes indisputable, uncontestable reality. They seem to be less and less bound to what used to be unbiased, universally-accepted facts. Such a reality sure makes being a teller or communicator of truth a lot more difficult and challenging than it used to be.       


In the November 8 edition of The New York Times Magazine, author Mark Leibovich discusses the rise of people adopting their own variations of truth rather than simply continuing to agree upon that which is true. A case-in-point is the so-called debate about whether President Obama was actually born in the United States. Birthers insist he was not. Obama's birth certificate, a document that in normal times constitutes reality, says otherwise. For me, this particular dispute and so many others like it, says more about all of us than it does about rock-solid truth. Perhaps we are becoming more interested in self-expression than we are on building upon that which is firmly in-place. A final word, then, to truth: it is us, not you.