Our society is in crisis. Many call it a crisis of meaning, and I would say it is just as much a crisis of truth. It can amuse us how advertising campaigns overstate and exaggerate their products, but they try to avoid the obligation to tell the truth. If truth is only a matter of personal perception and not measured by facts or a commonly agreed standard, there are “alternative facts” that are just as valid as the demonstrable facts that are supposed to guide us. If subjectivity is allowed, including where one depends on receiving reliable information, we are lost.
Of course, there are areas where opinions can be expressed, where it is really a matter of personal preference, or where facts cannot be verified. There are also aspects of life that affect us to a greater or lesser extent, which is why we have different opinions. Beauty is not measured but rather perceived. The different orientations of art can reach us or leave us cold. Religious views based on millennia-old traditions can trigger different feelings and inspire trust or rejection. But, despite all claims, this is not about verifiable truths but faith.
However, there are areas where we rely on facts, where things can be measured, proven, experienced, or repeatedly demonstrated to be true. If these areas are not reliable, we have a serious problem. The more we tolerate such untruthful practices, the more our problem escalates. Today, people deny the existence of truth and deceitfully point to the ‘one’ truth as if that’s the crux of the matter. In reality, it’s about our ability to trust that when someone makes a claim, they’ve verified it and understand what they’re saying. Or they admit they believe it but don’t know for sure.
Our most pressing issue is that we inhabit a society whose representatives have denounced the deceit of other political systems, yet they themselves have been dishonest. We were fed a narrative that downplayed our own wrongdoings and suggested a path of progressive improvement. While deceit was normalised in public life, its extent was not apparent to many. In some instances, malevolent individuals managed to secure government positions and act out the abhorrent and lethal imperialist ambitions that they accused others of. This deception gradually became visible, leading many people to try to excuse, rationalise, justify, or ignore it. But it has also led to an increasingly widespread opinion that the only important thing is not to get caught. If enough people hold that opinion, the truth is only admissible or not as one sees fit.
So, we can lie to others and ourselves as long as we don’t get caught because the end justifies the means. But if we build on sand, we have no solid foundation. The disheartening part is not that it has occurred, after all, other regimes have often been accused of such, but that Western moralisers were no different. Many people were engaged in what they believed was an effort to rid the world of all those things that were abominable in history and lead the world into a better future. They were deceived and exploited and finally disheartened when it became clear to all. The question is, where do we go from here?
The mess we have caused leaves us in a precarious situation, and dystopian visions seem to be descending upon us, as they have repeatedly done throughout history. A much-quoted statement is attributed to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: “What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.”
That sounds bleak!