The Bible says truth will set us free. If that's the case, I'm surprised many across the planet nowadays aren't bound in chains in the darkest dungeon.
Figured that might get your attention this morning.
Sadly enough, I fear the society we've created has come to accept untruth and deception as an expected, even normal, way of living together in 2021.
So why does truth matter? Why not just go through our shared limited period of awareness believing the lies we are told, rather than reality? Why should we care if the truth we supposedly are being told by another doesn't correspond with the facts?
Several reasons leap to mind, not the least of which is the corrosive effect lies have on many important choices we make. If the majority of decisions we make are not rooted in truth, what effect does that have on our individual lives and how badly we fare as a nation?
The social media that have infiltrated and undermined our culture and way of life provide equal measure to truth and lies. That leaves society in a constant quandary of finding the time (and making the effort) to try and distinguish between them. I seriously doubt many have the desire to continuously undertake that daunting challenge.
Believing in--and acting upon--falsehoods often will lead to calamity for ourselves, others close to us and the nation. The first thing to evaporate when we've been lied to is our trust in whoever spreads it.
In our day-to-day lives, how many times does another person have to tell us lies before we begin to not believe whatever else they say? There is great personal value in choosing to tell the truth as one knows it at the time, rather than spreading a falsehood.
Sadly enough, the lying that permeates our country begins at the top and flows downward.
For instance, no less than our own elected presidents stand at the podium and falsely assure us there will be no new taxes, or wave a finger at us while lying about Oval Office sex romps with an intern, or wrongly assure us that if we like our doctor, we can keep our doctor.
When many Americans who want to believe lies are truth discover there was nothing honest about that information, how are they to put faith in anything else these leaders say?
Many have offered their opinions on this subject.
That great philosopher with a guitar, Elvis, was quoted as saying truth is a lot like the sun. You can blot it out, but it never fades away. Poet William Cullen Bryant said that truth crushed to earth shall always rise again, despite the best efforts to keep it buried.
Recall the tale of Chicken Little who ran across the barnyard shrieking that the sky was falling when it wasn't? Aesop told a fable of the boy who hysterically cried wolf so many times that no one around him could believe what he said. Then the wolf really did arrive.
How about the criminal who knows full well he or she committed the crime, yet pleads not guilty under oath in court? In a strict interpretation of truthfulness, doesn't that constitute an outright lie, or perjury?
Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michiko Kakutani in her 2018 best-seller "The Death of Truth" writes that we live in a period of "truth decay" when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted.
The supposed wisdom of the crowd has replaced research and expertise, leaving us adhering to the beliefs that best confirm our biases, writes Kakutani's publisher. "In social media and literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the trends--originating on both the right and the left--that have combined to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values."
I'm far from the only life observer and philosopher to recognize our collective deviation from truth into deception. George Orwell is credited with reminding us that in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. And: "For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity."
And I appreciate what Professor Simon Blackburn wrote: "Truth is the aim of belief. Falsity is a fault. People need the truth about the world in order to thrive. Truth is important. Believing what is not true is apt to spoil people's plans and may even cost them their lives. Telling what is not true may result in legal and social penalties. Conversely, a dedicated pursuit of truth characterizes the good scientist, the good historian, and the good detective."
To that I include a good journalist who uncovers and reports truth to society.
All things considered, valued readers, the distressing condition in which we find ourselves today doesn't bode well for our national future if deviation from truth and reality are the principles we choose to continue pursuing.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.