Escape

FERNANDEZ

The truth is relative.

It is not subjective.

Relative means each of us will be affected by truth in different and singular ways relative to who, what, and where we are.

But the truth is not up to us.

We cannot just make it up out of nowhere unless in the sense of fiction and fantasy.

It is not subject to who, what, and where we are.

To believe that truth is entirely up to us is to invite worse chaos than what we have now.

Such chaos as will destroy us all eventually.

The worse damage is how this stupefies us and makes us out to be stupid even when we are not.

But we do not want to think about this.

Not when we have escape and business to think about.

Oh yes, I know I sound preachy as always. It is a trait that comes with age.

You can stop reading at this point. I will not apologise.
We are seeing the decline if not the death of institutional religion.

At the same time, traditional ways by which society establishes truth are increasingly coming under attack.

Media, the courts, institutions of representational government, schools, science, even the whole idea of intelligence are increasingly being challenged by Rightist authoritarians who propound their own allegations of truth according to whim and their own agenda.

How may we establish the truth between us? For those who have grown old enough, to preach is inevitable; as inevitable as moral judgement and time itself.

The older ones among us must have to speak against the tendency of people to rather not think about truth and things depressing, or boring, or uncool, or old. At a time when truth is as accessible to us as never before and literally at our fingertips we would rather think about how better to put on make-up or cook an egg.

These things are not bad. But perhaps one must strike a balance between our wants and what we as decent people ought to do, or know, or believe.

There is nothing wrong with being entertained. But searching for meaning and purpose is quite as or even more important in the long run.

And may I predict that as soon as you grow old enough you will need to think about these things.

Contemporary life certainly offers us all manner of escape. On the other hand, to search for truth seems rather the act of wallowing in it. And who wants that?

Good people do. And it has nothing to do with institutional gods or anything even slightly metaphysical.

Truth and the knowledge of it brings with it its own rewards not easily appreciable unless one has developed a taste for it. Truth is like good food. Entertainment is fast food. Not everyone likes truth the same way not everyone likes good food. One has to wait for it or work for it. Truth builds over itself.

The more truth one knows, the more one appreciates it. The truth is addictive.

It gives one a sense of belonging to a particular community that transcends the constraints of the everyday mundane.

The truth is timeless and immutable in a way that must be qualified. It is relative but never subjective. We must never stop searching for it. For even while we may never get at the whole truth, still, we must always search and move closer to it if the truth would make us free.