The World Hates Truth

Develop a “Policy of Truth”

Ukrainian Painting Owned by Author: Kyiv: April 2023

“Because he told the truth, and once you heard the truth, everything else is just cheap whiskey.” Sheriff Buck Olmstead played by R. Lee Ermey in the movie “Switchback: (1997)

Do you always tell the truth? You are a dangerous person. Yes, that’s right. The truth is dangerous and if you make it a point to always speak it, you will suffer consequences. You won’t be dangerous to yourself because one assumes that since you always speak the truth that you are also quite comfortable with being told the truth and also with being truthful to yourself. People will consider you to be dangerous because then they will have to face the real truth. Most people prefer convenient lies. No, I am not channeling Al Gore here.

There comes a time in life when we will all face the truth. Some of us will take the punches that are painful and continue staying in the ring. Others get hit once and they run cowering into the caverns of lies to shelter and huddle in fear with the others who don’t want to hear, see or read the truth. Now we are not talking about truth with a capital “T”, that’s an argument for theologians.

Objective truth and subjective truth are entirely different. What some believe to be truth is just a convenient lie that a person, society or group of persons collectively and often subconsciously choose to believe is true. Subjective group truth. Every person who believes this subjective truth may firmly hold that it is truth. This truth may seem like nonsense to you or me but to “them” it is true. Of course, individuals also hold their own subjective truths that they adhere to which you or I would see as a convenient lie. If you speak a subjective truth, then you are not really a dangerous person. You are only a threat to others who are not in your groupthink. Why? Well, say you believe that all people in your neighborhood who are not white and ring your doorbell are supposed to be shot on sight. Thus, your subjective truth is now dangerous to a select group of people.

Now, objective truth is one that any sane, rational person can accept as truth. That is, it’s based on empirical facts. The Russian Federation launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. That’s the objective, undeniable part of that objective truth. Now, people often mix in their…