Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The Truth Shall Set You Free


In our media rich world, the truth is no longer a sacred entity but rather a sellable precept. And by sellable it is meant that the truth is malleable and pliable enough to attract flies and dung beetles to it in swarms and hordes.

We the people mostly live by our understanding of that much maligned word. It is that understanding that makes whatever is being sold by the media, a living sensational entity that can incite rage, rabble-rouse, and excite the masses to the point of anarchy. This anarchy, in turn, of course, will be vilified and morally opposed by the same media pundits i.e. moral indignation. This self-proclaimed moral indignation is such a beautiful and attractive concept that we buy into it with open ears and minds without question.

Somewhere at the centre of the whole caboodle lies the truth; or rather, a version of the truth that is so veiled in euphemisms, rhetoric and commonplace platitudes that it is no longer recognizable but the truth nonetheless.

And given that our understanding of the truth is skewed in one bias or another, the propagation of what is real becomes easy to manipulate and concoct. Point in question: Take any news report and read the attached public commentaries. It is said that the truth is stranger than fiction, well, the a foregoing will highlight that quickly enough.

Not that the political fraternity is far behind their sensationalist media brethren. As a matter of fact, it is postulated that the media learnt their trade by watching and listening to the political society at large.

Whether we the people will ever know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is up for grabs. We need to learn to constantly question what we hear and read, to understand that what we are bombarded with is at best plausible fact, and to search for corroborating evidence amongst the maelstrom of out-there information.

The one infallible truthiness is that “Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want” - Clive Barnes.”

And therein lays the rub of it all!