Our City is green only at this time of year, when the rains sweep in off the Pacific, which they continue to do, blessedly, today.
I was at a meeting recently where speakers discussed the nature of "truth." This is a big topic, of course, and serious-minded humans have debated it at least since the time of Plato and Aristotle.
Nevertheless, I continue to be struck by how many around me seem so certain about the nature of their versions of "truth," especially as it pertains to spiritual matters.
Meanwhile, as a journalist, I recall with great clarity the moment when American journalists almost en masse seemed to share an epiphany that there is not one, but many "truths" in this society.
It was in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating by L.A. police almost 20 years ago, and the riots that followed that pivotal incident.
As few incidents ever do, this particular case caused reporters and editors, most of whom were white, to reflect upon the barely suppressed rage of African-Americans who felt that racist assaults by police were routinely ignored by the press until, in the King incident, somebody with a video camera happened to catch the crime on tape.
As obvious as this insight (about multiple truths) might seem to a student of philosophy, few journalists at the time had studied philosophy, and most would have told you, somewhat defensively, that they were most certainly devoted to uncovering the "truth" of whatever topic they wrote about, including police violence.
Many black citizens would have disagreed.
That was 19 years ago.
The larger point, of course, which remains unresolved today, is that one person's "truth" is often another's "lie." Until and unless we all grasp this multi-faceted aspect of social truths, we dwell in separate communities, separate realities, and ignorant of the chasms that continue to divide us from our common humanity.
2 comments:
You speak well of truth(s). It reminds me of when I was 13 and realized that everyone who followed any formal religious belief felt that their version of God was the real and true one. At the time I was learning about the different religions around the world and suddenly understood that every single person felt that their own reality was true. And if this was so, then I surmised that religion in and of itself was simply a belief system, which allowed me, in turn, to accept my own belief which is atheism. As we are often raised within the churches of our elders, the matter of choice does not enter the picture. While I realize that this is a different version of what you wrote about, and I have great respect for the definition of different truths that you are pointing out in relationship to race, what does relate is the unbiased understanding that we all carry our own separate experiences and resulting beliefs. And all of us must find a seat with our own understanding of the world that respectfully allows for difference. Tamara
unfortunately over the years 'truth' has gotten mixed up with 'perception' or 'perspective'- real truth does not change- it is solid and reliable.
If you jump off a 100 storey building you will NOT go up- you WILL go down- this is truth- no amount of discussing or negotiating is going to change this truth.
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