Chapter 4: Why Truth Lies
Imagine if all your problems were written out on a random piece of paper alongside their solutions… would you trust it? If no, I believe the skepticism arises from the fact the writer of the paper is unknown. For someone you don’t know to be able to offer you a truthful description of your situation is too unlikely. Even if someone was an expert in human behaviour, they themselves could still be wrong or poor intentioned, in which case another reason for doubt. But, if the information is correct why do we focus on who wrote the paper?
Truth as a word is not rooted in reality. The etymological root of the word is to mean reliability and loyalty. Language evolves and it adopts new meaning, being in agreement with what is factual. Truth is a thing that should not be said in the singular form, as there will always be multiple truths. Singular truth is no more than a narrative of why something feels real. What is real will always be real, but what is a perspective could feel like the truth despite not being fact. Currently, we say ‘the truth’ to basically describe ‘objectivity’ or an unbiased fact. But when you are told by someone that they are ‘telling the truth’ and they lie, would you trust them again so easily? I believe this word has earned the same mistrust.
Centuries we have been hearing and using the word ‘truth’ to cause pain, deceit and suffering. Old kings claiming they are righteous and benevolent, while a suffering grain farmer thinks to herself “I don’t think so”, only one truth is seen by the majority. We don’t really know our history and where it could have been misguided or manipulated, but we trust so easily a ‘truth’ from a voice of authority; yet are skeptical of the victim’s ‘truth’. Our trust in the message of powerful people and our doubt and mistrust of the less prominent is a dangerous bias. The most powerful person in our head is the voice that tells you what to believe. That voice is taught to silence the quiet voice that offers another side, rather than hear its valuable perspective.
Distrust in others, makes you trust yourself more. From your own personal experiences you decide what’s true, feeling more authoritative and entitled in your strong voice.
Distrust in yourself makes you trust others more, feeling less certain and self-sufficient in your own critical thinking; never quite reaching your own conclusions within your strong voice.
If you dictate the truth and ignore the quiet voice who speaks as the negative consequences, the inaccuracies and the bias of your truth, you will struggle to see yourself. If that quiet voice is barely there, who can you trust to see you earnestly? Never questioning your truth shows fear of it being wrong. Never listening to the questioning shows a resistance to openness. If the person who wrote the paper was your mother, would you trust it? Do you think she knows you as well as she think she does? If the answer to either question is no, you are the sole authority of your truth. In which case, the truth is your perspective, not an objective one. Learning to allow the quiet voice space is allowing your perspective to gain additional perspective, not have it be right or wrong.
What’s real will always be real. Your confidence in your appearance is real; Your lack of confidence in your appearance is real. What happened to you in your life is real. The other things that happen in life are real too. Realism is subjectivity. We distrust the opinions of others when we feel their truth is not our own, but there are many truths within our one truth. Some are rooted in us to cause pain, deceit and suffering, others come from healing, learning and growing; both can still be wrong. The collection of all our individual truths is objectivity. In order to see yourself you must be willingly to hear all truths including the ones we don’t like.
Life is simple if it is not oversimplified. In which case it can then become vague and lacking the necessary nuance to make sense. Common sense is popular sentiment not well-known fact. Apples being red, is common sense because the well-known fact is apples are not limited to only being red. The outliers are the simplicity of life. Dismissing the outliers makes life so much more complicated. Apples being seen as red most commonly globally, despite apples coming in other colours is the simple viewpoint. Being able to find the point of simplicity without reducing(generalizing) and dismissing(ignoring) what’s real to fit your beliefs is unconditional love.