Denying the facts you don’t like
I read Seth Godin’s blog often. His insights are usually spot-on. Many times Seth’s insights drive me deeper in my own way of thinking and assessment of reality. Today’s post was no different.
Excerpt from ‘Denying the facts you don’t like’: “The problem with Orwellian talking heads, agitprop, faux news and Ballmer-like posturing is that they take away a foundation for a genuine movement to occur, because once we start denying facts, it’s difficult to know when to stop. Tell us where we are, tell us where we’re going. But if you can’t be clear about one, it’s hard to buy into the other.” –Seth Godin’s Blog 10/2/12 (please continue reading here)
I want to take his idea a little further.
My title would be ‘Denying the truth you don’t like (because it makes you uncomfortable)’. We live in a culture that is dominated by post-modernism. At its core is relativism of truth. Essentially asserting, what is true for me may not be true for you. Some say that there is no ultimate truth. I ask the question, ‘Do you hold this to be true?’ If there is no truth, why should I believe what you are saying is true?
If truth is relative then reality has no ultimate meaning.
When we deny ultimate truth, we tend to break ourselves against it. The truth can be uncomfortable but rejecting truth because it makes us uncomfortable does not change truth. Media has lured us into a fantasy world where the lines between imagination and reality are blurred. The culture reinforces this experience by communicating the narrative that truth is relative. Gravity, birth, death, aging, nourishment, respiration, time, suffering, good and evil are all examples of ultimate human reality. In film and television these realities are reversed, suspended or destroyed as we pursue our desires to be entertained. The problem lies in how this fictional narrative is injected into our reality. We begin to ask the question, ‘What is real?’ We lose our sense of discernment and live our lives in mid-air.
I would rather know the truth and be uncomfortable than allow myself to be sedated by a fictional narrative where there is no gravity, only birth, no death, no aging, no need for nourishment, no need to breath, no sense of time, no suffering, good is mundane and evil is exciting. Fictional sedation clouds our judgment. It also arrests or distorts our ability to plan for the future.
When we allow the uncomfortable truth to be our foundation, we can plan for the future. Thanks to Seth for making me think this morning!
“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (Jn 7:24)