The Truth of the Matter
12/8/19
The word ‘truth’ derives from the word ‘true’, not the other way round, per dictionaries. Truth is defined as a statement or idea of something which is true. What is ‘true’? it means that which is in accordance with the state of being, something that conforms to essential reality.
One of the recent developments I am experiencing, which I am sure, is quite pervasive, is that you get invited (included) in to gossip circles, popularly called as Whatsapp groups. These groups are started with some intent, at least the ones I have been invited to, but sooner than later morph into its own dynamics.
In a recent public debate I heard that most fake news items are forwarded by males older than 60 years, or your obnoxious uncles. It is quite possible that this is a fake news in itself (or a fake fact), but also quite likely it is a justifiable opinion. The fact that most 60+ men are obnoxious, they have a lot of free time to kill, a number of contacts gathered over six decades of running around, and the possibility of keeping in touch with many of these contacts or getting invited to other groups by 60+ men. All these possibilities make the statement appear true.
Why all of a sudden I have started getting PSAs shrouded as news items, flooding my mail. Although obnoxious uncles like myself could be blamed for this, it appears to me that it is driven by an organized effort. In my country, political parties have discovered the advantages of fact-like fictions to create a political theme, and benefit through this. It is clear that the political parties’ only philosophy is to capture power, in the name of democracy, so that peoples mind could be shaped in which ever way that will enhance their power. However, I cannot claim originality of this deceit only to our political leaders, but I must grant that unlike in many other areas, implementation of this concept has been excellent, thanks to a large measure to the contribution of our 60+ uncles.
What is the utility of truth? While truth is only a perception, its description of what is called true is conditioned by our reality to perceive reality. Sometime we observe and make up what is true, but many a times we are told to observe what is meant to be true, irrespective of the reality. We know from history that the truth about many things have changed over time. Nevertheless, we as humans have the ability to distinguish between falsehood and truth, a skill we learn as we grow up over a period of time. The perception between a child an adult changes over time about the truthfulness of any phenomenon. Thus, adults become sensitized to not believing in falsehood, while in childhood the same event is called fantasy. Adults temporarily believe in falsehood (fantasy) like in a movie, but come out of it once that experience is over. But if you never leave the movie theater, do you believe in the fantasies all your life? Does truth matter? It depends on whether you are going to decide some action (the outcome of which will affect you) based on what you have perceived as truth. Thus, peddling fake news in the garb of truthful reporting of reality will have a consequence only when its receivers base their actions which will affect them in their future. We also believe what we want to believe, which means that our decisions on actions are already laid out, and we just collect enough excuses to execute (or justify) our actions.
With more communication channels, more technologies and more participants, it is only natural to expect more noise in communication. What can the regulators do when they themselves are part of the distortion of facts? Will they openly promote noises which are in the same bandwidth of their agenda, or shutdown communication when the noise level heats up? What will be the consequence of either of these strategies? We are in a unique position to ask these questions today. In the meantime, how will the organizations invested in communication technologies exploit the situation? Already there are many indications of this space turning into an unpredictable animal having its own jungle rule. My own instinct says that there will be a minority who will exploit the gullibility of the majority for a brief period of time before which its credibility will be completely lost. This will be a time when the response of the system becomes immune to signals.
Delectable Debates 