Growing up, we were taught that truth was, of all things, objective. It either happened or it did not. There was only one singular truth, and if you defy it or you lie, it is bad. Often, when we were young, we trusted our parents — for better or worse. We relied on our parents to create our realities for us, because we did not have anyone else to trust. Our parents shaped our realities while we readily consumed what they fed us as their truth and realities, which became ours. Eventually, we grew up, cast our metaphorical shackles off, and began to create our own realities, independent of our parents. We at first learned that talking back to your parents, even when you are right, does not mean that what you did conformed to the truth: of course the parent was always right. We learned that whatever “objective truth” our parents taught us was really whatever they believed to be dogma.
How did we respond to this? Some of us conformed to our parents’ sense of reality. The avoidance of conflict was more important than trying to speak out to correct a perceived wrong over something supposedly minor. It was too much effort. Others confronted our parents’ sense of reality. It felt good to rebel — it was liberating. We started to discover that there existed a reality outside of what others created for us and what we could enact for ourselves. Of course, some of us who conformed also secretly held onto our own hopes of breaking out of our parents’ preconceived notions of control and truth, formulating our own dissenting opinions in disguise.
Now, we know that truth is not objective. It is a hodgepodge of our unique lived experiences and backgrounds. Because no two experiences are the same, there is no such thing as a unifying truth or reality. We all perceive things differently. But how can we accept this if we all agree that the sky is irrevocably blue and clearly two plus two makes four? It is because we all mutually agree on things that we hold to be self-evident. But what is defined as self-evident for some is not self-evident for others, and that is where real change comes from: through exposure, disagreement, and understanding.
Truth, or our own realities, can be used as a force for good. Expressing our differences in our realities through many mediums, e.g. writing long essays, spoken word, conversations, humor, etc., unsettles us from the stasis of the status quo. It enables us to learn outside of our own comfort zones and discover a reality we have not been exposed to yet. It is both an intellectual and practical benefit to become more aware of things around us because to be entrenched in one’s own “bubble” only serves to hurt you in a more social world.
However, truth can be weaponized against the common good. And that is what I fear. Just as a parent can impose their sense of reality upon you against your will, so a reality can be imposed on you. You know where I am going with this.
The general election was largely decided by voters who were fed misinformation through various means of campaigning and political maneuvering. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published in October, those who were more likely to vote for Trump and who consumed sources of conservative media had a distorted perception of the reality around them: believing that gas prices remained recently high (wrong), that illegal border crossings were at an all-time high in the past few months (wrong again), and more falsehoods.
Now, you may think that this piece of writing is a warning that our reality is about to shift dramatically under the next administration and we must fight to defend our truth as we know it. Unfortunately, it is not. Our reality has already changed. In the age of misinformation, it is no longer your parents forcibly placing their form of truth on you. Truth can be changed before our eyes and we would not even see a thing.
But, you ask, how does truth become a lie when everyone has different backgrounds and different things to consume? It is when one believes in something that actively contradicts what they’ve experienced and holds two directly contradictory things to be true at the same time — doublethink.
That is why it is important to speak out. To maintain the truth of all people against inherent falsehoods, for everyone. But when people say, “Speak your truth,” it doesn’t mean whisper and hope it reaches somebody. Because in the world we live in now, with short attention spans and loud voices that marginalize others, a whisper is drowned out in the sea of opinions. It means advocate even when there may seem to be no one standing with you — because you may inspire change yourself. It also does not mean marginalizing other voices in the process. Do not commit the same crime that others have.
The storm has already arrived. Let’s weather the storm together, and rebuild from the ruins.
