IS IT TRUE?
Rumor always spreads rapidly, it seems. Truth has a bit more trouble in doing so, largely perhaps because we have to make doubly sure - these days - that what is being called “truth” is, indeed, what it claims to be.
Too many of us seem to think that because we have heard it on radio, seen it on TV, or in print, we can trust it to be accurate. Many people seem to hold that to be a sacred system and freely quote what they
have heard or seen as fact. If a well-known TV talking head says something is “Truth”, then, so be it - whatever he or she said - must be accepted as being authentic without question . It is also amazing how many people accept the
judgment of a vague group of unidentified persons called “they”. Think how often you have hear that credit given as a prelude to the stating of a fact which needs some strengthening. “They say...”; places the responsibility for
judging something to be true upon a group of people who must be, or must have been, experts on the particular subject being discussed. Who “they” are has never been established. Others try to narrow it down a bit by saying:
“Doctors tell us.....”or “leading health studies show that....”scientists tell us..” Worse yet ,perhaps: “Educators tell us....” and you can go right on down the list of occupational groups to quote authority which seems to authenticate the
”fact” about to be stated.
I knew one very sharp individual - a technical person - who had developed a habit of making statements he set forth sound true by alluding to the fact that certain authors... let’s say: “Finkleberger, Smothers and
Costerson”, for example, “once wrote” so-and-so. I first became aware of his learned book-hooks when I realized he always used three authors and alluded to the fact that the text was available only in German or Classical Greek.
The aura created was that he could read the originals and we could not. His trio-quotes came in handy when setting forth presentations in our business. Always three! He never read a book by just one author. And he often added
icing to the sweet cake when he made reference to the books as “papers”, even as in “learned papers”, ”theses” or “manuscripts.”
Exactly how do we ascertain that something is true?
To me it seems to be what verbally uncouth persons might call “a gut feeling.” You sense, ’way down, that something rings true or does not do so. The old maxim : ”if it seems too good to be true, it probably is”
stands as a valid test.
We seem to be a nation which is easily led to con game
altars. Millions of dollars are thrown away by people every year who fall for a line of lies made to appear to be truth. We are constantly grabbing at straws hoping ,thereby, to avert some supposed disaster just ahead.
Truth , I feel, is best found in faith. Faith in oursleves and in our
heritage; in our friends and family. Faith in a religious sense, is a positive factor...a willingness to see ourslves as we really are. It is also an essential guide in seeking out Truth. It seems that, even today, as it has for centuries, goodness
equates with achievments and higher goals while evil seeks a constantly lower level.
All that - and I still cannot decide how we accept something to be true. Someday, I suppose, it will prove to be a mathematical concept as so much of life and living is about us in this world.
A.L.M. August 4, 2002 [c620wds]
