Death of Truth

And, death of fact.


Saying something is true doesn’t make it true. Printing something is true doesn’t make it true. Just because it was in the newspaper doesn’t make it fact or truth. Or a magazine, book, whatever.


Facts taken together can mean something if logic connects them. Putting things together alone creates a jumble. Thought and logic combine facts into a statement that has meaning and authenticity. It can be proven. It will stand the test of time.


Digging for facts and understanding their context discovers meaning. Meanings amass to a body of knowledge. It can be used to understand other bodies of knowledge. Testing meanings is aided by following the threads of research to origins of facts. This is how we come to understand the world.


Each of us comes to such understandings. Alone or in a class of peers, we learn things about the world, about life, about ourselves. We do this by rote in early years of school. Later, we learn to conduct our own explorations into things we do not know or understand. We continue to explore and discover new facts, new truths, an ever expanding universe of meaning, of knowledge. This is how we grow inside our skin, inside our head.


Sharing ideas with others we notice differences. We wonder about those and explore them. With humor and trust, we discuss how different we are, yet how much alike we are. Cracks and crevices of our individual logic appear. We come to know them and understand them, too. In fact, the gaps are filled with fresh understandings.


There are those who go on to study more and delve deeply into detailed subjects. They amass larger bodies of knowledge that are shared and combined with others. Our understanding of the universe expands more.


And we are able to do more with this knowledge.


Until we cancel trust. Fact. Truth.


That void only exists if we let it.


Stick with facts, logic and well-earned knowledge. Prove those conclusions each time. Trust in the logic and proofs. Keep knowledge and intellect alive.


Do not let ignorance erode truth.


There are those who want you to abandon facts. Don’t let them.


February 11, 2020