Open: Truth

Obviously this has become a sore subject in recent days, which is very outlandish to my mind, but the Truth. Or rather what is is or isn’t. I guess I’ll start with a thought that I think a lot of people are missing, as evidenced by the endless flurries of flame wars abound on the internet these days. I feel like we miss that there are differences between your own personal truths and agreed upon truth. I know that seems an over simplification, but I really want to drill down on those 2 buckets.

First I posit that personal truths are your own. Don’t get me wrong some people may agree with you on some of them, but really these are the things that are true, to you, because they are your own. Opinions, Feelings, Beliefs, Ideas things like that. These things that are important to us because we feel strongly about them. We’ll get back to this.

Now as to agreed upon truth, these, I feel, are the things that the vast majority of us agree are true. The earth orbits the sun, gravity is a thing, we need air, food and water to live etc. These things that are tried and true because they are very easy to observe and confirm amongst the masses. Of course these are not without their own sense of flux, what seems true today in many aspects of our lives may not be true tomorrow in light of new knowledge or simple changes that occur over time. For instance if I traveled back in time to 1994 when I touched my first computer and told 10 year old me about the internet, smartphones and the like, I’d have been like, “That’s some Star Trek shit…..” And thought there’s no way. I would’ve been wrong of course, because look at the distance covered by humans since 1994, it’s nuts, but we’ll save those details for another ramble.

Because things are now changing more rapidly than ever or concept of what is true or correct, seems to be changing just as rapidly, which is to be expected in a world we now live in where you can literally do nothing but look at information all day. We can find out about just about anything via the internet these days or learn how to do things, which is great. But with all great achievements there’s always a draw back, especially as tools become more accessible and ubiquitous in our daily lives.

While on the internet everyone now has a voice and places to go to share ideas with like minded individuals, which in and of itself isn’t bad or wrong, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t call attention to the fact that it also gives a platform to ideas that are widely considered to be bad, wrong or even dangerous at times. I firmly believe you can believe what you’d like, but meeting no less than 4 Flat Earthers in one day was something that definitely challenged my notion of what I felt was common fact.

I’m not hear to debate the merits of all the crazy theories out there, but I wanted to turn a lens on how I think about my beliefs and what I think I know to be true, as these are 2 very different things. When asked I have no problem sharing what my beliefs are, but I’m always sure to preface it with, “That’s just what I think or feel” and I don’t have any expectations that someone will share in them.

As to common knowledge, that is changing daily with all of the new information flowing through the world at an instant these days, but it’s still troublesome when we can observe things that appear to be be the truth for most and not only write it off, but also refute it and align others to that cause. I mean we all want to belong somewhere and want our beliefs to be valid, which is fine. Of course when those start to spill over in a way that is detrimental to our situation as a whole then things get spiky to say the least.

I try not to be an alarmist when it comes to these things, most times I run across this, we may not agree, but at least we had a conversation about it, putting aside our troll friends that simply live to argue and berate for the sake of creating confrontation where there may not be any. We all have a voice and we want to believe that what we say with it is what is true and correct, but I think most people know that’s not the case. For the record I’m wrong all the time, but rather than trying to turn away from it and fight to convince someone I’m not, it’s easier to just admit I was wrong and move on. This is not to say that this often comes across as me being to laidback or in some cases that I’m too much of a coward to fight for my ideals. I feel it’s really not finding any satisfaction in fighting with the world, even if it’s only on the internet. Most people are emboldened to be more aggressive digitally these days, because well, the fear of reprisals is usually fairly slim. Sure someone might call me an idiot in comments or go so far as to send death threats and Dox me if they feel strongly enough, but those are chances we take whenever we put something out into the public forum.

My choice is try and offer good debate if there is one to be had and not take it personally when people want to simply argue with me because my beliefs don’t align with mine. To debate, I am ALWAYS down for discussion even if I’m not going to change your mind, that’s rarely the goal anyhow, and often an unobtainable one. Of course I say this as I type these very long diatribes on my thoughts as they happen over a subject and push them out into the public forum. I also know that this opens my thoughts or feelings up for challenge and/or ridicule.

I guess at the end of the day we can count on things changing and somethings remaining the same. Truths that we often run from for awhile because it might be painful or embarrassing to admit that we were wrong. That things we held for sometime may not be correct. It doesn’t help when there are many in society that are stuck on the concept of being incorrect is a sign of weakness or some core failing as a human being. I’d like to posit that being able to state when you’re wrong and move forward is something critical to personal growth. I found more than a few times in my life, where admitting I was wrong was the best thing to help me move forward, whether in learning new things or patching up a wrongdoing, it works.

I’m still playing around with how I want to sign off on these things, but I definitely want to invite discussion, if you’re interested.

What are some of the things you find personally true? What are some you feel are agreed upon truths? Do you have trouble when these truths are challenged? What makes you hold fervently onto some truths and not others?

As always I’m always open for thoughts and discussion. What’s true for me may not be true for you. Always important to note that.