House of Eratosthenes

…is that, in subtle but important ways, we turn our backs on truth. We reject it, not outright, but by demoting other tangential things over truth, and we relegate truth to some position inferior to other things that should not matter as much.

We think of things that are fake but accurate to be more meritorious, more worthy of our attention, our consideration, our support, our indemnification, than other things that are truthful, although perhaps somewhat lame.

You know, it’s a funny thing about the concept of “truth.” When we come to find out there is one, we very often find out it is not one to our liking — but it is what it is, nevertheless. That is the whole concept of truth, that it is what it is and it doesn’t very much matter whether we like it or not.

When it arrives at too high of a cost, and we find our delicate political structures and obligations are more precious to us than reconciling ourselves with truth, we have to disclaim what we know to be truth. But it doesn’t stop there. We have to also disclaim the idea that there is a truth at all — anywhere. We step into a world in which “truth” is determined by what the majority, or the powerful, or some combination of those two, find to be comfortable.

And by absolutely, positively, nothing else.

There’s your “liberal vs. conservative” right there.

I was having a discussion along these lines with a liberal-ish friend today. Not an in-depth discussion, as we were both sorta drunk and watching football at the time, but nonetheless. In an amazing display of bipartisanship, I got him to provisionally agree to the following proposition: “lots of times in life, the choice is not between ‘good’ and ‘bad;’ it’s between ‘bad’ and ‘worse.'”

Conservatives instinctively recognize the concept of “suboptimal,” since all options available in the real world are suboptimal… or, in other words, one can’t have everything. As one goes further left in one’s politics, one increasingly refuses to recognize this — if something isn’t 100% perfect, thinks the leftist, it must be somebody’s fault. Hence the spectacle of –to take an instance at random — ladies of the girlular gender complaining that they take 6+ months off for maternity leave, plus another 2-3 months to get back up to speed, and yet do not perform as well as the guys who have been picking up their slack (on top of doing their own jobs) for the past 6-9 months.

To a proggie, everyone should get everything he wants — a career AND a successful marriage AND kids AND spiritual fulfillment AND a great sex life AND six weeks paid vacation AND free medical care AND low taxes AND tenure AND a promotion AND a dental plan AND a bag of chips, all at once and at no cost. Point out that lots of these things are incompatible with each other — the “truth” in your mini-essay above– and you’re worse than Hitler.
- Severian | 12/19/2010 @ 22:24
Well, aren’t you? Worse than Hitler, that is?
- chunt31854 | 12/20/2010 @ 10:41
Currently looking for a “I warm up with waterboarding” tee shirt.
- mkfreeberg | 12/20/2010 @ 10:50
That is the whole concept of truth, that it is what it is and it doesn’t very much matter whether we like it or not.

The ardent, committed left-winger and the militant secularist (but I repeat myself) will dispute even that. Remember, they’re the ones who’ve spent three generations insisting that there’s no such thing as objective truth, objective & unchanging morals, or even objective reality. It’s all relative, you see. It’s all based on perception. Perception is reality, morality is defined by individual choice, objective truth & reality – which probably don’t exist – are unknowable.

When I go talking to people about capital-T Truth (Jesus) this is often the first objection I run across. I sigh and think to myself, “I’ll bet previous generations of Christian missionaries & witnesses didn’t have to deal with this bit of bull. There were differing points of view, but they didn’t have to wrestle with self-styled “intellectuals” who insist that the very notion of objective truth itself, is either non-existent or unknowable.”
- cylarz | 12/21/2010 @ 02:45
Cylarz,

talking to people about capital-T Truth is useless, man, since the type of folks who need to have the capital-T specified are the same ones who a) insist that there is no capital-T Truth, then b) turn right around and insist that “the facts have a liberal bias”, and c) see absolutely no contradiction between a) and b).

It’s like arguing with a rock, except more tedious and somehow even less rewarding.
- Severian | 12/21/2010 @ 13:59

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The Tragedy of the Times in Which We LiveSunday, December 19th, 2010

The Tragedy of the Times in Which We Live
Sunday, December 19th, 2010