TRUTH TO TELL

So, although real truth is built on a moral foundation, the structure itself must be social and intellectual. However, the majority of people in this society believe many false ideas. This is not entirely their fault, since our education system and public discourse are such that false ideas are more effectively disseminated than genuine ones. A listing of the more prevalent propaganda is revealing. Capitalism is bad.

Evolution is false.

Herbal remedies can cure all diseases. Ancient Egypt was populated by black Africans. The Indian caste system is good. Islam respects women. Hinduism exalts women. Africa was the cradle of human civilisation.

Ancient India was the home of the first civilisation. First World countries conspire to keep the Third World poor. Ancient civilisations were wiser than modern ones.

AIDS is a man-made disease. Psychics can predict the future. Socialist polices help the working-class.

Condoms do not lower HIV infections rates. Legalising abortion and homosexuality will lead to more abortions and homosexuals. Hanging will reduce crime. Prayer is the answer. Human beings use only ten percent of their brains.

Well, maybe this last item is true of the radio and TV talkshow hosts, the public commentators, and the prominent personalities who promote this rubbish. Many of these persons, of course, tell deliberate lies in order to further their own racial, religious, and political agendas. In such a scenario, it is no wonder that the average Trinbagonian has a poor grasp of complex realities.

In the modern world, truth is no simple matter. A commitment to truth requires, first of all, a capacity to face uncomfortable facts. Most persons prefer to hear only those ideas which comfort them or which flatter their prejudices. Indeed, if you do not have a single belief which you would prefer not to be true, it is unlikely that you are an objective or truthful person. (Here are three beliefs I hold which I am not comfortable believing: there is no life after death; the minimum wage does not help the poor; intelligence is genetically inherited.) Once you get past this first barrier, then the hard work starts. The world is too complex for any individual to acquire first-hand knowledge of how it works. Even if he is deeply knowledgeable in a particular field, the individual can only understand a small part of the world’s workings. This means that he must rely on the experts to explain the world to him. So anyone who takes the trouble to read rigorous historians, scientists, economists and sociologists would understand why all the ideas I have listed above are complete and utter nonsense. However, most people, quite understandably, do not have the time or the energy to read this range of experts. There are only two categories of people who can carry out this task properly: professional philosophers and writers. This is because these persons are professionally and personally rewarded for such efforts. But one reason that the general populace in Trinidad and Tobago embraces bogus beliefs is because ours is not a culture which considers philosophy and writing to be real work. But even if the intelligent layperson depends on foreign non-fiction writers for knowledge, he still has to decide who is trustworthy and who is not.

This is where the layperson has no choice but to educate himself in the fundamentals of thinking itself (although this task should really be done by our professional educators). First, there is the matter of logic. Anyone who presents themselves as a truth-seeker would, as far as possible, support their opinions with a logical or ethical argument. They will never use the argument from authority, which is the usual method of religious believers. Believers’ arguments either start or boil down to one thing: the Bible/Qu’ran/Bhagavadgita says so. Indeed, when confronted with scientific knowledge, they often use the argument that their religious texts have certain knowledge and absolute truths, whereas scientists often talk about what is “probably true”. These persons act as though stating something to be true makes it so — an attitude no different from trying to fill up your gas tank by pushing the needle gauge from Empty to Full with your finger.

Secondly, there is the issue of evidence.

The truth-seeker cites the best authorities and “best”, in this context, does not mean the most powerful or famous. It means research based on the scientific method. If the authorities cited have not done research through experimentation or historical investigation or data collection and analysis, then the commentator is not trustworthy. Also, when commentators cite historians as though they are anthropologists, or anthropologists as though they are archaeologists, or archaeologists as though they are biologists, their conclusions are likely to be false.

But the reader may ask — is any of this really important? Does it really matter if people believe false things, once they are decent persons? I think it does.

Development is impossible in a society shaped by wrong-headed ideas. This is because, before good policies can even be implemented, you first have to chop through the thorny thicket of misinformation, propaganda and untruth. I think that false beliefs about abstract ideas and scientific theories may not matter in good times, but in bad times false beliefs accelerate the descent into social and economic instability and even atrocity. The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: “Many may contend that, even if the systems men have invented are untrue, they are harmless and comforting, and should be left undisturbed. But they are in fact not harmless, and the comfort they bring is dearly bought by the preventable misery which they lead men to tolerate.”

And, in that context, I am pretty sure that Sean Lumfai’s murderer was born psychotic. But I also suspect that the false ideas of this place created an environment that facilitated the killer’s savage persona.

E-mail: kbaldeosingh@hotmail.com

Website: www.caribscape.com/baldeosingh